Modeling structural behaviour of a dry-assembled glass block bridge with soft PVC interlayer

Abstract

Inspired by the glass masonry façade advanced by the Delft University Glass and Transparency Group for the Crystal House in Amsterdam, a 14 meter span structural glass pedestrian bridge is developed, also consisting of cast glass elements. In contrast to the Crystal House project, which employs an adhesively
bonded glass block system, here dry assembly of the glass elements is proposed to allow for a demountable structure. A number of exploratory experiments are carried out to investigate the structural behaviour of the system. These include compression tests on the glass blocks with a PVC interlayer. With the physical properties obtained from the experiment the bridge can modelled in a finite element program. The results are compared to analytical and numerical calculations and discussed.