Design of a Transparent Column in Glass and Steel

Abstract

The use of in-plane loaded glass panes allows for highly transparent and material efficient structures. This research focuses on the design of a transparent and safe column in glass and steel, in which an extremely slender steel column is laterally supported by in-plane loaded glass panes. Full-scale experiments have been carried out to determine the stability behaviour of the glass-steel column and to obtain valuable data to calibrate a Finite Element model. Most importantly, it is shown that the concept of the glass-steel column is perfectly feasible.

Keywords

• steel column
• glass panes
• buckling
• lateral support
• adhesive joints
• full-scale experiments