Transparent Fa?ade Solutions with Bonded Glass-Steel Beams

摘要

The combination of steel and glass used as a hybrid structural element such as a mullion or transomrngenerates a higher level of transparency in facades. In spite of its positive attributes, the brittlenessrnand the lack of plastic deformation of glass increase the risk of a spontaneous failure and the entirernloss of load-bearing capacity after breakage of each glass panes independently of the glass type.rnHowever, this typically results in over-design with high safety factors if laminated glass beams arernused. The combination of glass beams with the ductile material steel provides an optimised loadbearingrncapacity with increased robustness. In a modified four-point bending test the load-bearingrnbehaviour of various cross sections of hybrid beams was examined. The test results demonstrated arnconsiderably improved structural and post-breakage behaviour of the hybrid beams compared tornconventional glass beams.