A New Hybrid Solution For Structural Glass Reinforced Beams (In Italian)

Usually there are two main ways to design glass beams: The first is based on layered beams made of fully tempered glass elements to maximise the potential of the load bearing element. In this case, the higher the theoretical resistance, the lower the safety in case of glass breakage; The second, instead, is based on the authors’ idea (patented in the early 2000s) to reinforce an all-glass beam made of annealed glass sheets to guarantee, in the event of glass damage, the postpeak life of the glass elements, which will maintain their load bearing properties even if the glass layers are damaged. In this article, the authors describe a third hybrid glass beam layup that meets important goals.