Flexural Creep Behavior of Full-Scale Laminated Glass Panels

This paper presents experimental and analytical investigations on the creep response of full-scale laminated glass panels. The experimental study comprised relatively long-term (350-h) flexural creep tests on full-scale 3-layer Polyvinyl butyral (PVB)-laminated and 4-layer SentryGlas (SG)-laminated glass panels. The experimental data were fit using Findley's power law, and the resulting creep deformation predictions were compared with those obtained considering different interlayers' material models available in the literature, most of which are based on dynamic mechanical analyses (DMA). The results obtained confirm that PVB-laminated glass panels present significantly higher creep deformations than those made of SG. Findley's power law was able to accurately simulate the deflections of both laminated glass panels measured in the tests. For the PVB panel, long-term (50-year) deflection predictions using the DMA-based material models from the literature were considerably higher than those using Findley's power law. For the SG panel, although an overall better agreement was observed between Findley's power law and deflection predictions from material models available in the literature, significant differences were still encountered, namely for the DMA-based material model. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.