All-glass stairway with a free span of 10 meter

Fokke van Gijn, MSc. C.eng., Corsmit Consulting Engineers

The article describes the development and realisation of an X-shaped glass stairway with a free span of 10m in an office building in the Netherlands. The large free span meant that the load bearing glass beams had to be composed of three complex shaped laminated glass panels, joined with each other with high strength steel adhesive connections. Due to the unique dimensions and complex forces in the stairs all the connections had to be specially designed and tested before they could be applied in the stairway. For obtaining the needed safety level a second load path is incorporated in the design.

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The Authors

Mr. Fokke van Gijn structural engineer van Rossum structural engineers Rotterdam Fokke van Gijn is a structural engineer. He graduated in 2004 at Delft University, faculty of civil engineering on a patented very high strength glass connection in cooperation with Octatube. Currentl... Read more