Experimental studies on structural timber glass adhesive bonding

Abstract

The utilization of timber in building structures has been increasing in the last years, partly due to technological developments in this field. New tectonic concepts such as prefabricated and industrialised systems arose, though very different from the ones presented by traditional solutions. Hence, the combination of timber with other constructive materials is emerging. Steel, composites materials or glass can be combined with timber, in order to obtain resistant products, highly typified, standardised and with low behavioural variation. The structural utilization of timber glass composite solutions is a daring construtive system, which although still in a very early stage, already presents an important potential of applicability in architecture. In order to fully benefit from composite timber glass cross sections, an adequate bonding between these two elements is essential. With the purpose of achieving the ideal balance between strength and flexibility, an extensive set of experimental tests is being carried out at the University of Minho. This presentation focus on the analysis of results regarding shear stress tests with timber glass bondings, using adhesive as structural bonding system. In these tests, various adhesives were applied, including different trades and adhesive types such as silicone, methacrylate, polyurethane, acrylics and superflex polymers.