Reinforced Laminated Glass

Steffen Feirabend, Institute of Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK), University of Stuttgart, Germany, Werner Sobek Stuttgart, Germany

The brittleness of glass calls for innovative solutions which improve the postbreakage behavior of structural glass elements. By means of lamination combined with embedded reinforcement, it will be possible to increase the residual strength of glass in the damaged state, thus counteracting the natural brittleness of this material. The tests on reinforced laminated glass show that this technology achieves sufficient residual strength even for fully tempered laminated glass. The reinforcement-interlayer-matrix ensures the required stiffness and strength throughout the considered temperature range of laminated glass. Besides its structural performance the reinforcement acts also like a pattern on a building envelope and offers new opportunities in glass architecture.

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