A Glass Facade with prestressed Carbon Cables

Abstract

Carbon fibers are especially well suited for tensile structures. The potential of this high-performance material can be fully leveraged in orthogonally loaded prestressed cable-net glass facades. Based on many years of experience with steel cable-net facades the first carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) cable-net facade was developed. The load bearing structure of this new facade type consists of a net of thin CFRP tensile elements, which are located in the same plane as the glazing and are hidden in the joints between the individual glass panels. In this fashion, large glass facades with nearly invisibly load bearing structures become possible. In this article, the conceptual design and the structural detailing of a carbon cable-net facade will be described, and the very promising results of a prototype test will be presented.