Load carrying capacity of a novel pin connection in tempered glass

The main goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of introducing pins connection between tempered glass elements. The project aim to analyze the bearing capacity of pin connections between tempered glass elements, the analysis is based on experiments, where 4-point bearing test configuration is used in order to have pure bending. Furthermore, evolution on the precision used in the manufacturing process are considered. The thesis is structured in two main parts: the first one is focused on experimental work, where the strength of a drilled hole is tested and then a prototype connection with multiple pins is investigated. The second part, where the same tested system is implemented in a FEM software in order to compare the experimental results with the FE-model’s ones.