In-plane loaded glass pane (shear wall)

The in-plane stiffness of glass panes can be used to stiffen a glass façade. These structures have to fulfil two main criteria: firstly, an allowable stress distribution for safety and secondly, a maximum horizontal displacement for serviceability. To realize a stabilising façade, the framework and glass panes have to be structurally bonded. A proper technique is a circumferentially glued joint. Three joint types and two adhesives are investigated. Joint type 1 is a polyurethane joint on end. Joint type 2 is a two-sided epoxy joint and joint type 3 is a one-sided epoxy joint. The square annealed single glass pane and a joint type are placed in a frame which is horizontally loaded at the right top corner (deformation controlled). The load-displacement relation of a system with joint type 1 is bi-linear. The first part has a low stiffness without cracking, because the pane shifts and rotates within the flexible joint. The second part has a large stiffness, because the displaced pane is activated mechanically accompanying with cracking at the corners of the compression strut. The compression strut transfers the load for both parts. The warning mechanism’ for failure is good. The load-displacement relation of systems with joint type 2 shows a gradually decreasing curve accompanying with cracking. The stiffness is clearly larger than systems with joint type 1. The compression stresses are large in the compression diagonal at maximum load. The ‘warning mechanism’ for failure is good. The load-displacement relation of systems with joint type 3 also shows a slightly decreasing curve accompanying with cracking. These systems have small principle stresses and are uniformly distributed at maximum load, except for the left bottom corner. The tensile stresses are clearly larger at this corner. These systems have good ’warning mechanism’ for failure, but completely collapse after the final crack initiating at the left bottom corner.