Design and evaluation of bonded composite glass beams

Glass can be combined effectively with another high-strength material, and a maximally efficient interaction between the two structural elements can be achieved. This paper deals with adhesively bonded steel–glass composite I-section beams, where the web is made of glass and the flanges are manufactured from steel. The paper describes the design procedure and presents a static evaluation, taking into account many influencing factors, such as the semi-rigidity of the adhesive layer, which is the key element in the horizontal shear contraction between the glass web and the steel flanges. Experimental research on full-scale composite beams with a span of 4 m is performed and evaluated in a laboratory at CTU in Prague. Analytical approaches for practical design are determined on the basis of these investigations, and are supported by many numerical studies. Adhesive producers (in the past mainly interested in the industrial application of their products) are now attempting to improve the properties of adhesives that can play a real load-bearing role in the joint. The procedure for including a new adhesive in an analytical approach is also described here.