Sustainability is an important issue in present-day architecture. Thus, there is a strong demand for innovative timber solutions. Sophisticated timber structures usually comprise large prefabricated timber panels. The size of a glass façade in such systems is restrained by the structurally vital shear walls, as glass is solely used as an infill panel. If glass is considered a load-bearing element, such limitations can be overcome.
The full potential of the composite elements evolves with the application of mid- and high-strength adhesives which exhibit rather low deformation compared to highly elastic adhesives such as structural silicones. The paper presents the investigation of different adhesives from a shortlist to prove their suitability for timber-glass composite construction. The selection process comprises several experimental studies on the bulk material and on small bonded parts. The viscoelastic material properties of the adhesives and the glass transition temperatures were determined by means of a dynamic mechanical analysis. The stress-strain-relation, the tensile modulus and the Poisson’s ratio were obtained
from uniaxial tensile testing. Shear tests were performed under short-term loading at different temperature levels to evaluate the adhesion. As a result a number of adhesives are suggested for further testing under long-term loading and artificial ageing.