Post-Failure Behavior of Point-Fixing Laminated Glass Plates under Out-of-Plane Uniform Pressure

Abstract

This paper presents the results of an experimental and numerical investigation of the mechanical response of undamaged and damaged 2-ply laminated glass plates. Two types of glass plies, thermally toughened and heat-strengthened, coupled with SentryGlas (SG) were considered. Laminated glass plates supported with articulated point fixing bolt under out-of-plane uniform pressure were investigated under four different damage configurations: (i) undamaged; (ii) partially damaged, with the bottom ply broken; (iii) partially damaged, over-flipping the specimen of mode II; (iv) both two glass plies broken, which was applicable for LG plates made by heat-strengthened glass. In the above four modes, the top ply is always subjected to compression while the bottom one is in tension. The different responses of each configuration (different glass types and damage modes) were discussed and compared in this study. In addition, numerical models were adopted to reproduce the experimental results. The influence of the hitting location and glass types on the mechanical behavior of LG plates was analyzed. The results showed that the contribution of the broken glass ply could not be disregarded in the evaluation of the global stiffness of partially damaged LG plates and their bearing capacity.