Testing of self-supporting laminated glass balustrades

The work carried out within Task 2 Experimental work of the ÅForsk funded project "Structural safety of glass components" is presented in this report. The main goal of this project was to improve the understanding about the structural safety of self-supporting glass components. In particular, the results of the project intended to extend the current knowledge about the effect of impact and related testing methods regarding the safety of glass structures. Static and impact tests were conducted on a self-supporting glass balustrade with point-fixings. The laminated glass consisted of two 10 mm thick layers of laminated glass and a 0.76 mm thick interlayer made of EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate). A static line load was cyclically applied to the top of the specimen to gain an understanding of the static behaviour of the glass structure and to minimize the settlement in the structure prior to applying impact loading. The specimen was subsequently subjected to dynamic loading by impact tests based on EN 12600 (pendulum impact) with different drop heights until attaining failure. The dynamic structural response of the glass balustrade was analysed by three-dimensional Digital Image Correlation (3D-DIC). This measurement technique made it possible to directly relate the measurement of any point to the specimen and to study the deformed 3D shape in detail during the impact test. The FE-analysis (FEA) conducted using SJ Mepla was found to correlate rather well with the dynamic test results particularly up to the initial peak displacement