The use of glass in facades and roofs poses a significant challenge for engineers because glass is

a linear elastic and isotropic, but also relentlessly brittle, material. To overcome this obstacle and
ensure an adequate degree of safety, the principles of concrete design may be used because
concrete possesses analogous mechanical characteristics, especially with respect to its brittle
failure. This has led to several research and building projects involving a variety of reinforced
glass beams. This idea has encouraged research on mechanically precompressed glass beams
with a special focus on Spannglass Beams—glass beams with post-tensioned reinforcement. The
research presented here contributes to remedying the lack of knowledge by presenting the results
of four-point bending tests on 15 two-meter-long specimens with a variety of tendon diameters
and initial cable forces. The experiments showed that an increase in fracture load was possible
when the glass beams were precompressed. However, the cable load needed to be limited to
create safe and reliable Spannglass Beams. This limitation introduces a smaller amount of elastic
energy into the system, which was proven to be problematic. Additionally, the removal of
sacrificial layers from the glass web turned out to be essential. Finally, the paper draws a set of
conclusions by comparing precompressed glass beams with general research on glass beams and
concrete design. This will allow for novel architectural opportunities that are underpinned by
profound engineering: literally invisible structures will be feasible in the future, combining the
astonishing mechanical properties and transparent nature of glass.

Test Setup

A four-point bending test is a common way to mimic reality and allow for later use of
experimental results in a building. Fig. 3 depicts the test rig and measuring devices. The bending
load F was introduced via a cross beam (a) and a hydraulic jack with internal force and
displacement (wz·T) meters. A load cell recorded the cable force Np (b), while a displacement
gauge measured the tension path wp at the active side during the tensioning procedure (c). Six
gauges were installed to cover the strain on the glass surface at the top edge (εtop), bottom edge
(εbottom), and center (εcenter) of the cross section to derive the stress during a cracking event
(σcr·i) and to estimate the ultimate load-bearing capacity. Additional displacement meters
detected the deflection (d, e). This configuration is obviously close to a building in use since the
introduction of an experimental load may be replaced with point-connected glazing elements and
snow or wind load.
Material Properties

Results

Validation model
BV10-II to BV12-II 8.1 15.0 3
BV10 3.08