Gfrp Reinforced High Performance Glass-Bolted Joints: Concept And Experimental Characterisation

This paper presents the results of an experimental investigation into the use of externally-bonded Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) strips as a means of improving the load capacity and delayed failure characteristics of glass-bolted joints. The peak load and the failure behaviour of GFRP reinforced bolted joints in annealed, heat-strengthened and tempered glass were investigated using the experiments of double-lap tension joint configurations. The results were compared with that of reference unreinforced joints, and bolted joints in commercially available laminated-annealed glass. The paper shows that GFRP reinforcement ensured significantly enhanced structural performances of the joints in annealed and heat-strengthened glass. Although the bolted joints in tempered glass showed the highest load capacity, the joints failed with no ductility where tempered glass shattered into small dices. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.