Structural Behaviour of Laminated Glass Beams: Standard vs Prestressed

This paper presents an integrated experimental and numerical study of laminated glass beams reinforced with prestressed steel cables. The aim is to evaluate how prestressing modifies the brittle behavior of glass, improving load‐bearing capacity and residual performance after fracture. Six full‐scale laminated glass beams were tested under four‐point bending: three simple specimens without reinforcement and three reinforced beams with high‐carbon steel cables, inducing a controlled prestress. Prestressed beams achieved up to 88% higher load capacity and more than twice the deformation capacity compared with simple laminated beams. Failure transformed from a sudden brittle event into a more progressive, ductile‐like sequence. A finite element framework was developed in Abaqus/Explicit, incorporating constitutive models for glass, the interlayer, and prestressing steel. The behavior of glass was modeled using both the Concrete Damage Plasticity (CDP) model and the Johnson–Holmquist‐2 (JH‐2) model. The CDP approach proved computationally efficient and accurate in reproducing experimental load‐deflection curves and fracture sequences, while JH‐2 showed limitations for bending‐dominated, tension‐driven failure. The results demonstrate that steel‐cable prestressing is a viable strategy to enhance the safety and serviceability of laminated glass structures, and that the CDP‐based model provides a reliable tool for design optimization.