Numerical investigation of two-sided reinforced laminated glass beams in statically indeterminate systems

摘要

A significant number of investigations has been performed to improve the unsafe (brittle) failure behaviour of glass beams. Similar to reinforced concrete, reinforced glass beams have been developed in which stainless steel is embedded in the glass laminate to obtain safe failure behaviour. The concept has been proven to be feasible when assuming statically determinate systems.However, the additional system safety of statically indeterminate systems has not been investigated yet. This paper presents numerical research outcomes on reinforced glass beams with statically determinate as well as statically indeterminate support conditions. In a first step, a model of a twosided reinforced beam subjected to three-point bending was created for validation purposes. The thicknessand height of the constituents making up the model were based on experimental measurements of test specimens.Subsequently, the same numerical model was made using nominal dimensions for the glass and reinforcement.In this way, the effect of dimensional tolerances on the load-carrying behaviour was investigated.Furthermore, a single-sided reinforced glass beam wasmodelled under the same loading conditions to assessthe effect of adding compressive reinforcement. In asecond step, statically indeterminate two-sided reinforcedbeam models were constructed based on the statically determinate model. From these preliminary models, the load-carrying behaviour and effect of reinforcementpercentage were evaluated. Finally, also the stress redistribution capacity of both beam models was assessed. It is concluded that dimensional toleranceshave a significant effect on the load-carrying behaviourand should therefore be accounted for in the designof reinforced glass beams. The additional compressivereinforcement provides slightly higher bending stiffness,initial failure load and yield load to the glass beams, although it does not contribute in the yield phase. However, a different ultimate collapse mechanismis expected as the compressive reinforcement cantake the stress when the glass compressive zone hasfailed. The statically indeterminate simulations provedthe feasibility of applying reinforced glass beams instatically indeterminate systems as a safe failure behaviourwas observed with significant stress redistributioncapacity. Changing the reinforcement percentage hasa significant effect on the load-carrying behaviour ofthese systems. However, the overall behaviour remainssafe.