Technical Developments in structural glass

Developments in
structural glass
GRAHAM COULT The Institution has previously years, during which users can provide
BEng(Hons) addressed this knowledge gap with the comments and feedback though the
publication of its guide to the Structural UK’s committee, the comments will be
Technical Director, Eckersley
use of glass in buildings7, aiming to collated and debated at the European
O’Callaghan, London, UK
educate engineers and specifiers and to level. The document will then be
provide guidance with design. The guide issued as a draft European Standard
MAURO OVEREND has proved extremely popular, with (prEN) for a further period of comment,
BE&A(Hons), MSc, PhD, CEng, the second edition (published in 2014) before eventually being published as a
MIStructE selling over 700 copies to customers European Standard (EN) along with a
Professor of Structural Design in more than 20 countries and being national annex.
& Mechanics, Department of downloaded over 1000 times a year The most significant new feature in
Architectural Engineering + Technology, via the IHS Construction Information this draft standard is the introduction of
TU Delft, the Netherlands Service. two additional limit states in the design of
An introduction to the material is glass structures.
also available in Technical Guidance The familiar ultimate limit state (ULS)
Introduction Note Level 1, No. 35: Introduction to and serviceability limit state (SLS),
The use of glass in structural design has structural glass8. which consist of combinations of
grown rapidly. It is an exciting material to However, since the second edition actions – ULS: persistent or transient
work with and in its finished state it has was published, the steady march of (fundamental), accidental, seismic design
an exceptional transparency. Although progress has provided an even wider situation; SLS: characteristic, frequent,
it has a relatively low strength-to-weight variety of products from manufacturers quasi-permanent combination – will
ratio, it is made from silica sand, one encompassing sizes (Figure 4), shaping feature in this new standard and will be
of the most abundant materials in the possibilities and an ever-greater number similar to those used in the design of
Earth’s crust. of interlayer materials; not to mention other structural materials through the EN
As a purely elastic material, it can the decorative and other secondary 1990 process.
break dramatically. In rare cases, this is functionality. However, these two limit states are not
particularly true of fully tempered glass This article introduces a series of sufficient to ensure a safe glass structure.
(Box 1), as can be seen with broken short technical notes which aim to Some glass structures must also be
side or rear windows of cars. summarise some of these developments designed to fail safely in the event of
Historically, there has been little for structural engineers to bridge the glass fracture. For example, a hammer
effective guidance for the engineer to gap until the planned glass Eurocode, dropped onto a concrete slab has no
turn to for a standardised approach and an accompanying IStructE manual, significant consequences, but a hammer
to design. There have been various are published. falling onto a glass floor can have serious
draft guidelines, such as prEN 134745 consequences in terms of human injury
and prEN 16612, which can perhaps Glass Eurocode and costs of repair/replacement. For
be considered as forerunners to a The European glass code, ‘Design this reason, the new draft standard will
European glass code that is currently of glass structures’, is expected to include a fracture limit state (FLS) and a
in development. prEN 16612 is now a be released for public comment as a post-fracture limit state (PFLS).
fully-fledged standard – BS EN 166126 Technical Standard in mid-2022. The The FLS is intended to ensure that,
– but its scope is limited to infill panels, document will be available through at the instant of fracture, the glass
and so forth. BSI. After a period of nominally two fails in a manner that does not cause
This lack of codified guidance has unacceptable risks of human injury
required individuals or companies to or economic loss. Whereas the PFLS
research the fundamental characteristics ensures that the fractured glass does not
of the materials, to test and to verify cause unacceptable risks of human injury
basic design principles, or to carry out
desktop research of published papers,
A HAMMER FALLING or economic loss for a limited period of
time (e.g. until the fractured glass can be
etc. This is not a practical approach ONTO A GLASS FLOOR replaced).
for those who want to find a safe, CAN HAVE SERIOUS To demonstrate this, we can imagine
practical and time-efficient solution for
a simple common glass structure such CONSEQUENCES IN TERMS a scenario where routine maintenance
or cleaning is being carried out around a
as a balustrade. Although professional OF HUMAN INJURY AND rooflight, and the operative accidentally
development must always be supported
and lauded, it is best served when
COSTS OF REPAIR/ drops a tool onto the glass panel with
enough force to initiate a fracture
efficient and achievable. REPLACEMENT (Figure 5).

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February 2022 | thestructuralengineer.org
 Developments in structural glass Technical

Box 1. Strengthening methods for glass

îFIGURE 2: Fracture patterns of glass3

MATTHIAS HALDIMANN
MATTHIAS HALDIMANN

a) Annealed glass b) Heat-strengthened glass c) Fully toughened glass

ëFIGURE 1: Principle of glass tempering (adapted from Sedlacek et al.)3,4

Fully tempered glass is much stronger cracks into the tensile zone, then the together. Although not the first
that than the untreated/unstrengthened elastic strain energy of the glass is laminating material, polyvinyl butyral
glass that is manufactured in traditional released. (This can also happen because was developed by Carleton Ellis in 1938
float plants. The float process, which was of internal defects such as nickel and was immediately useful to minimise
first developed by Sir Alastair Pilkington sulphide inclusions and air bubbles.) injuries arising from motorcar accidents,
in 1952, introduced the mass production Cracks can propagate through the particularly in the windscreen.
of flat undistorted glass. (As an aside, Sir material at over 1450m/s2, so the fracture To make the most of these laminated
Alastair was not related to the Pilkington can be sudden and unexpected. panels, particularly in out-of-plane
family for whom he was working.) A benefit of strengthening is that the loading scenarios, requires a knowledge
This added strength is achieved glass will crack into small cubic particles. of composite design, in particular,
by heating and air quenching a glass This is why it is often referred to as sandwich theory. The laminating polymer
sheet. The outer surface cools and ‘safety glass’. However, this does not has a more complex behaviour than
solidifies while the inner core remains mean that it is safe to use in any location. the glass. Not only are the materials
viscous enough to continue to contact. From this same standard material generally viscoelastic, but they are also
When the whole panel reaches ambient that comes from the float plant, we temperature dependent. To demonstrate
temperature, the core is in a state can overcome the shortcomings of the this, Figure 3 compares the Young’s
of tension, while the exterior is in flaws in the material by adding strength modulus of the more ‘popular’ materials.
equilibrium balancing compression through heat tempering, but that comes The interlayer is selected on the
(Figure 1). This compressive residual with consequences. performance requirements, such
surface stress increases the ability of the Alternatively, the glass could be as strength, stiffness, operating
glass to carry load before the surface is specified as heat strengthened. This is temperature, and load duration.
subject to tensile strain. subjected to similar heat tempering, but Additionally, it can also be chosen based
The strength of glass is around 40GPa, the cooling rate is modified so that the on requirements for clarity, colour, glass
but cracks that are invisible to the naked elastic strain is low enough to prevent surface profile, acoustics, and even fire.
eye create a problem. A.A. Griffith1 fragmentation into small particles The number of permutations that are
demonstrated in 1921 that such surface upon failure. Instead, cracks will stop available is immense, and that is without
cracks concentrate the stress such that propagating if the glass is unloaded, but delving into how the glass can be
the actual strength of the brittle material it will separate into large sharp fragments shaped into curved and more complex
sheet is much lower than the theoretical if the applied load continues (Figure 2). forms. In this respect, designing with
molecular strength. To overcome these issues, polymers glass is unlike many other traditional
If an applied load extends these were invented to bond glass sheets materials.

ìFIGURE 3: Young’s modulus of popular laminating polymers

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Technical Developments in structural glass

íFIGURE 4: Increase of
processing length

This example shows the variable

performance and limit states
the designer will be applying. It
demonstrates that a relatively intricate
level of design and assessment is
required for a seemingly inconsequential
or minor building element. However,
with such a wide use, unsafe practices
have occurred and unfortunately will
continue to do so. It is incumbent on
us all to work within our expertise and
design safely.

Upcoming articles
To help bridge the availability of
guidance and information, the Institution
plans to share further best practice.
A manual to accompany the glass
Eurocode will be published in due
course; but in the interim, we plan
to issue a series of technical notes
in The Structural Engineer, focusing
on individual topics and containing
examples of common design scenarios.
Upcoming articles are expected to cover
balustrades, treads and floorplates, and
finite element analysis.

REFERENCES

1) Griffith A.A. (1921) ‘The

phenomena of rupture and flow in
solids’, Philos. Trans. Royal Soc.
A, 221, pp. 163–198; https://doi.
org/10.1098/rsta.1921.0006
2) Nielsen J.H., Olesen J.F. and
Stang H. (2009) ‘The fracture process
of tempered soda-lime-silica glass’,
Exp. Mech., 49, p. 855; https://doi.
org/10.1007/s11340-008-9200-y
3) Haldimann M. (2006) Thesis 3671.
Fracture strength of structural glass
elements – analytical and numerical
modelling, testing and design,
Lausanne: EPFL
4) Sedlacek G., Blank K., Laufs
W. and Güsgen J. (1999) Glas im
Konstruktiven Ingenieurbau, Berlin:
Ernst & Sohn
5) European Committee for
Standardisation (CEN) (2009) prEN
13474: Draft European Standard:
Glass in building. Determination of
the strength of glass panes
6) British Standards Institution
FIGURE 5: Limit states for glass (2019) BS EN 16612:2019 Glass in
building. Determination of the lateral
load resistance of glass panes by
HAVE calculation, London: BSI
YOUR
SAY 7) O’Regan C. (2014) Structural use of
[email protected] glass in buildings (2nd ed.), London:
IStructE Ltd

A RELATIVELY INTRICATE 8) Institution of Structural Engineers

(2014) ‘Technical Guidance Note
LEVEL OF DESIGN AND Level 1, No. 35: Introduction to

ASSESSMENT IS REQUIRED @IStructE structural glass’, The Structural

#TheStructuralEngineer #TheStructuralEngineer Engineer, 92 (3), pp. 38–42

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February 2022 | thestructuralengineer.org