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Abstract Figure1
Experimental setup
The strength of glass as used in
architectural engineering is one of those
things about which too little is known.
To determine what would be a safe
design stress for glass in a completely
glass structure, tests have been done on
panels of annealed oat glass and fully
tempered glass using different sizes and
both lying and standing positions. The
results demonstrate that the strength
of both annealed and tempered glass
is dependent on the orientation of
loading, the commonly held strength
values for tempered glass are a gross
over estimate for beams under bending
loading, the strength data cannot be
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described by Weibull statistics.
Case Studies
Introduction Specimen size Tempered position Failure stress* s.d. (%)
Glass is a material that is used in all (MPa)
branches of engineering because it 60050*10 mm No Standing 52.4 16.1
is the only rigid transparent material 60050*10 mm No Lying 71.4 19.6
available. The last decades have seen 100012510 No Standing 43.7 11.8
increasing use of glass in automobiles mm
100012510 Yes Standing 140.1 14.8
and buildings. The tendency in modern
mm
buildings to increase the amount of
100012510 No Lying 71.0 20.1
glass used has resulted in the desire to mm
use the glass in a load bearing manner. 100012510 Yes Lying 154.5 20.6
Glass however is a brittle material that mm
fails unpredictably in tension. Although 100025010 No Standing 39.9 24.3
the strength of glass can be described mm
in certain cases by Weibull statistics 100025010 Yes Standing 87.6 18.3
and probabilistic strengths calculated, mm
as shown earlier by Veer and Zuidema 100025010 No Lying 51.1 35.3
[1,2], considerable uncertainty exists mm
in the literature about the exact 100025010 Yes Lying 101.2 22.3
parameters and the allowable design mm
strength. For this reason 4 point * average of 16 tests
bending tests have been conducted on Table 1
standing glass panels of 1000250 mm test results for all specimens
and 1000125 mm using annealed oat
glass and fully tempered oat glass.
Experimental method
Glass beams of size 1000 mm long and layer of foil was sufcient, for tempered an intermediary between the metal
125 or 250 mm wide were cut from a oat glass three layers of foil were supports and the glass to avoid inducing
single glass plate with a thickness of 10 needed. high contact pressures. The test rig is
mm. Specimens of 600 mm long and 50 The beams were tested in 4 point shown in gure 1.
mm were cut later to provide additional bending on a Zwick Z 100 universal
data. These were professionally cut testing machine with the specimen Results
on professional cutting machines and standing or lying. The cut and processed
The results of the tests are summarized
nished by grinding and polishing. Half edges were thus directly stressed in the
in table 1.
of the specimens were pre-stressed standing specimens. To avoid buckling
using full thermal tempering. All the specimen was supported on the
specimens were wrapped in pet foil for sides at 5 points along the length. 2
safety. For annealed oat glass a single mm thick sheet nylon was used as
Conclusions
From the results the following is
concluded :
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The deviation from the Weibull There is some correlation between
distribution is especially signicant [5] Hess, R.
Case Studies
the number of cracks that develop Glastrager, Bericht 20 des instituts for hochbau
at the bottom of the failure strength from the point of failure and the techniek, ETH Zurich , 2000
distribution. failure strength. This correlation [6] Janssen M., Zuidema J., Wanhill R.
The results suggest that this deviation works best in specimens with a low Fracture mechanics, 2nd edition, 2002
can only be explained by the proportion of height to length.
presence of multiple failure Acknowledgements
mechanisms with different probability References The material assistance of the van
distributions. Noordenne glass groep and SIKO bv in
The design strengths of glass beam [1] Veer F.A., Zuidema J, van Kranenburg C
The strength of glass providing us with glass and adhesives
specimens tested standing is Proceedings 2002 European Conference on to conduct our research is gratefully
signicantly lower than that reported Fracture (ECF14), Krakau acknowledged.
in the literature. [2] Veer F.A. , Zuidema, J
The experimental work for this
The failure of tempered glass The strength of glass, effect of edge quality
Glass processing days / educational glass paper by S. Broersma, E. Brogt. J.
specimens tested standing is by crack conference. (pp. 106-109). Tampere, Finland: Kaars Sijpesteijn, S. de Richemont and
growth from an initial defect. Glass processing days / tamglass ltd.Oy. D.Vosmaer is acknowledged.
Only after the specimen has failed by [3] Gulati S.T., course notes, design principles for
overloading does cracking due to the glass products , 5th glass processing days ,
Tampere 1997
release of the pre-stressing energy [4] Draft European standard for mechanical design
take place. of glass, EN 1288-2