Dowel Joints in Tempered Glass

The demand for glass structures has increased significantly in recent years, and has pushed the boundaries of possibility. This has let to tempered glass being incorporated in the load carrying structure of buildings. In this context, DTU Byg has developed a pin connection for tempered glass on the basis of drilling the holes after the tempering process. This type of connection has several advantages such as lower costs and a decrease in tolerances.

As an extension, this thesis deals with two main subjects. First, a numerical analysis of residual stresses around a borehole in tempered glass is conducted. This analysis deals with several types of boreholes with varying geometries. Second, a series of pin connections are tested experimentally to optimize the pull-out capacity by geometric variations of pin and borehole. Furthermore, a numerical model of the pull-out tests is developed to validate and compare experimental and numerical results. The essential results of these tests showed that a thicker adhesive layer, and increasing the hole depth and pin diameter lead to a larger pull-out capacity.