Developments in GFRP Reinforced Bolted Joints in Glass

Abstract

The brittle material behaviour of glass means the inefficiency of contemporary mechanical connection technologies hampers the exploitation of full potential of glass for delivering energy efficient buildings. This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation of the use of adhesively bonded Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) strips as a mean improving strength and ductility of bolted joints in glass. The peak load and the post-peak ductility of GFRP reinforced joints in annealed glass in double-lap tension joint configurations were experimentally investigated and compared with equivalent unstrengthened reference bolted joints in annealed glass and fully-toughened glass. The results show that the peak load of the reinforced joints in annealed glass increased up to 250%.  The reinforced joints also showed a notable ductility compared to the reference annealed glass and fully-toughened glass test specimens.