Parametric Studies on Bracing Steel Frames with Glued Glass Panes

Glass panes structurally bonded to a steel framework can be used as a stability system for buildings. A system built up of a single glass pane, a steel frame and a glued joint is only loaded by a concentrated monotonic in-plane load at the top. Three glued joint types are defined, namely a flexible joint on the end, a two-sided and a one-sided rigid joint. A finite element model was developed and calibrated with the experiments followed by varying the geometry of the glass pane. The applied criteria are the strength of glass for failure and the restricted in-plane displacement at the top. The system with a flexible joint on the end can be characterized by small loads, large inplane displacements and small stiffnesses. The stiffness is the criterion. Systems with two-sided and one sided rigid joints can be characterized by larger loads, much smaller ,in-plane displacements and larger stiffnesses. The strength of glass is the criterion and is located on the glass pane's surface in the vicinity of the glued joint which anchors the tensile diagonal of the glass pane. These tensile stresses increase by the different in stiffness of the glued joint (rigid) and the less shear stiffness of the bolts between beadwork and outside beam of the frame. However, the stress distribution in the glass pane as well as in the glued joint is unfavourable for systems with one-sided rigid joint. The two-sided rigid glued joint is a promising joint type based on the geometric parameters of the glass pane and the good residual capacity after the first cracks as observed in the experiments