Experimental investigation of the temperature effect on the structural response of SG-laminated reinforced glass beams

To generate high-level redundancy for structural glass beams, a novel concept of laminating a metal reinforcement to a structural glass beam has been developed at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). This concept makes use of the relatively stiff polymer interlayer material SentryGlas (SG) to bond the metal to the glass. However, due to the visco-elastic properties of the SG, its stiffness varies at different temperature levels. To what extent this temperature dependency has an effect on the structural response of the beam composite has been experimentally investigated in cooperation with Ghent University (UGent) and is the subject of current publication. Two separate series of pull-out tests, to investigate the bond strength, and beam tests, to investigate the post-breakage response, have been conducted at −20, 23 and 60 °C. The pull-out tests revealed a high temperature dependency of the bond strength of SG. This temperature dependency also had an effect on the structural response of the beams. However, regardless of temperature level all beams showed high-level plastic response and high redundancy. It is therefore concluded that temperature levels of −20 to 60 °C do not endanger the structural safety of SG-laminated reinforced glass beams.