Structural Performance of Bolted Connections and Adhesively Bonded Joints in Glass Structures

High-strength adhesives provide an alternative, and potentially more efficient, load-bearing connection to conventional bolted connections in glass structures, but the relative structural performance of these connections has yet to be established, and the accuracy of existing predictive techniques is largely unknown. This paper describes the parametric and experimental investigations undertaken to compare the structural performance of nominally identical bolted and adhesive connections subjected to short duration loads. The paper also reports on the accuracy of existing empirical and numerical techniques for predicting the load-bearing capacity of these connections. The investigations show that the load-bearing capacities of the single-lap and double-lap adhesive connections can exceed that of the double-shear bolted connections, and that failure in the adhesive connections tends to be less catastrophic. The existing empirical methods provide good approximations of the load-bearing capacities of bolted and adhesive connections within the limits of applicability. The numerical strength predictions based on an equivalent stress approach produces the most accurate predictions, but all methods are sensitive to the glass strength parameters selected.