Quasi-static experimental study on flexural performance of aluminum-reinforced laminated glass beams

Recently, in concern of safety, glass beams adhesively strengthened with other ductile materials have been putting forward by various pioneering researchers. As a light-weight and high-strength construction material, aluminum alloy has an elastic modulus close to glass and is expected to cooperate well with glass in reinforced glass beam (RG beam). In this paper, a series of exploratory experiments is carried out to investigate the structural performance of nine aluminum-reinforced glass beams (ARG beam) under in-plane four-point bending. Three PVB-laminated glass beams without reinforcement are also tested for comparison. The effects of height-to width ratio and lateral restraint conditions are investigated. Based on the test results, the ARG beams are demonstrated to have better flexural performances than the unreinforced ones. Different failure modes are observed. The test results also show that previous analytical models on the RG beam may overestimate the in plane flexural resistance, suggesting that further refined investigation is needed. Lateral buckling at the post breakage stage is observed for the ARG beams with weaker lateral restraint and lower height-to-width ratio. The "M-N " approach (resistance domain method) based on the test measurement provides a conservative prediction for the lateral stability of the remaining compressive zone, indicating that the existing methods might be available for buckling verification at the post-breakage stage.