The TVT γ prototype and the record of 12 meters free span
The good experimental results offered by prototype TVTβ and the satisfying correspondence between test results and numerical models demonstrated that this technology opened the way to long spanned but at the same time safe hybrid glass-steel beams.
This goal has been reached with the construction of the third prototype of the TVT series, the TVT γ which, with its free span of 12 meters, belongs at present to the longest glass beams of the world.
The constructional conception of this specimen doesn’t differ from that already described for prototypes TVTα and TVT β. Also in prototype TVT γ , that has a length of 12000 mm, a height of 1079 mm, a width of 600 mm and weights 18 kN, all the glass panels are connected together by prestress exerted with a system of post-tensioned steel bars anchored at the steel knots.
The cross section is that of an inverted U composed by two vertical twin glass webs put at a distance of 600mm from each other and an upper horizontal glass flange. The lower horizontal side of beam is left open.
Each of the two twin webs is made by a set of 19 identical equilateral triangular glass panels disposed in a Warren-like scheme while the upper flange of the beam is made of a sequence of 10 identical rectangular glass panels.
To the undiscussed qualities of beauty and formal elegance that glass and steel give them, TVT beams add the necessary features of efficiency and static safety that other glass structures are not able to offer.
TVT beams associate therefore the charm of glass transparency and of filigrane structure to the reliability and ductility of steel.
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