1. Reinforced glass beams lecture for Verre 2006
Dr.ir. F.A. Veer

2. Glass in architecture
Glass has played an important role in architecture as the material that opens up a building to light.
An important example are the great rose windows of the medieval cathedrals.

3. Cathedral of Notre dame , Paris

4. Glass in architecture
Although these windows are very dramatic they need extensive supporting masonry as they weaken the structure.

5. Crystal palace, London , 1851
19th century greenhouse, Madrid, Spain

6. Glass in architecture
Although glass appeared to take a leading role it was still only a material that separated the interior and exterior.
It was only some twenty years ago that glass started to be used in a limited structural role.

7. Grand Serres of cite des sciences et de l’industrie at la Villette

8. Glass in architecture
This marks a transition from non-structural to limited structural use of glass.
This also raised the important question:
How far can we go in using
glass as a structural material ?

9. Glass as a structural material
It also raises the question of what loads we can put on glass in :
Tension
Bending
Compression
Bending will be the focus of this presentation

10. Glass beams Monolithic annealed float glass Tempered float glass
PVB laminated tempered float glass
Sentry glass laminated tempered float glass
Cast resin laminated tempered glass
Polycarbonate laminated glass
Carbon fibre reinforced glass
Stainless steel reinforced glass

11. ING office, Budapest

12. Glass museum, Kings Wingford, England, PVB laminated roof beams

13. Apple store, New York , use of Sentry glass

14. Wolfson building of the medical faculty of the university of Glasgow

15. IHK building , Munich

16. Carbon fibre reinforced glass roof beams for the loggia di vicari

17. Stainless steel reinforced glass beam after testing
TU Delft all glass paviljon 2004

18. Failure behaviour stress Monolithic glass PVB laminated glass
Reinforced glass
PC laminated glass
strain

19. Stainless steel reinforcement
In 1995 the ZAPPI research program started.
Goals was to develop safe transparent components for a transparent building of 20×20×20 meters.
This means beams of large span, column’s etc. as well as the technology to put it together.

20. 1997
Glass polycarbonate beam

21. 2001

22. 2002

25. 2002

26. Glass box section reinforced beam, 2003

27. 2003
Glass T-section post-tensioned beam

28. 2004

29. Further improvement
Although the 2004 result showed large and safe beams can be made research is continuing in several directions.
This with the following aims :

30. Further improvement how to increase the ease of manufacture
what is the required volume of reinforcement
what is the optimum configuration for the reinforcement
- what is the optimum configuration for the glass
What is the best adhesive for the reinforcement
What is the maximum length that can be attained

31. Ease of manufacture

32. Required volume of reinforcement
thickness

33. Reinforcement configuration

34. Adhesive type Stainless steel reinforced glass
bonded using GB 368 adhesive
Stainless steel reinforced glass
Bonded using araldite 2013
adhesive

35. configuration for the glass

36. configuration for the glass

37. maximum length

38. Conclusions The results so far show that reinforced glass beams :
can exceed the 6 meter length limitation imposed by the standard glass panel size
can have a build in structural safety mechanism which shows considerable deformation after initial cracking and thus cannot collapse spontaneously
can in theory be used as structural member of the main load bearing construction
have a length limit of about 20 m
can result in innovative architectural solutions

39. Conclusions
The main obstacles to introduction of reinforced glass beams are:
the lack of an adequate knowledge base on which to design the components
the problem in joining the glass components together
the lack of knowledge about these components at the architecture and engineering level
the lack of clearly applicable building codes for the regulatory body
the need for specialised staff and expertise for the contractor