Elastic lateral-torsional buckling of glass beams with continuous lateral restraints

Lateral-torsional buckling is a typical buckling mode for slender members loaded in bending, which is characterized by the lateral and torsional displacement of the cross-section along the complete member length. Structural glass members are often connected to the encompassing structure by means of a silicone sealant joint along the member length, which acts as a partially rigid lateral connector, restraining the movement of this side of the member. While this will increase the lateral-torsional buckling resistance of these members, this is currently not considered during the design. In this paper the behaviour of glass beams with a continuously restrained top edge, loaded by a line load or central point load along this edge, will be investigated by executing a numerical parametric study. In this study, the restraint provided by the silicone sealant joint is modelled by lateral springs along the edge of the beam. The influence of the spring stiffness on the critical load and corresponding eigenmode shape will be determined in an eigenvalue analysis, considering both monolithic and laminated glass beams. The results of this study will give some first insights in the influence of lateral restraints on the lateral-torsional buckling behaviour.

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