Structural use of Glass

Abstract

<p>Recent architectural trends and technological developments have brought about unprecedented opportunities and exciting changes in the use of glass in buildings. <p>Structural engineers currently have a bewildering array of glass products and configurations to choose from and a wide range of normal and exceptional loading conditions to consider, but very few unified reference texts for undertaking these tasks. This book attempts to redress this issue by providing an overview of the recent developments in this field thereby providing a basis for the understanding of the structural performance and design of glass in buildings. <p>Each chapter draws on the latest developments in practice and research and contains contributions from various international glass experts. The mix of general and specialist content ranging from rules of thumb to fracture mechanics and novel applications to post-breakage performance make this book useful to practitioners and researchers. Furthermore, the text is supplemented by tables of the major codes of practice and by an extensive list of references. <p>The book is primarily for structural engineers and researchers who have an interest in structural glass. It will be used by senior undergraduates, post-graduate students, researchers and practicing engineers.

Structural characterisation of adaptive facades in Europe - Part II: Validity of conventional experimental testing methods and key issues

“…Through the years of application of bolted connections for facades, the protruded bolt connection was evolved further in countersunk fixing that uses conical holes and bolts to resist out-of-plane loading and obtain smooth external surface without any protrusions. Relatively recently developed articulated bolts, which includes a ball and socket, allows free rotation of the facade panel and reduce stress concentrations [28].…”

Integration of dye solar cells in load-bearing translucent glass fiber-reinforced polymer laminates

“…where non-encap ¼ 3.9% is the efficiency of the nonencapsulated modules (see Table 5), and c fabric ¼ 0.978, c mat ¼ 0.993 and w fabric and w mat are the fabric and mat reinforcement weights in the outer encapsulant. Due to the close match between the refractive indices of glass substrates and resin (values between 1.52 and 1.56), 8,17 the two following effects have been considered for establishing the model of equation ( 4): (1) reflections at resin/glass substrate interfaces have been disregarded, and (2) the same reflections at air-resin interfaces as at air-glass substrate interfaces have been considered.…”

“…Since polyesters adhere poorly to glass, silane-coupling agents can be applied at the glass/polyester interface to improve adhesion. 8 Used as building envelopes, translucent GFRP laminates with encapsulated DSC modules would allow the integration of structural, energy production, and daylighting functions in single components. Temperatures in these envelopes, however, would vary greatly within a short time-depending on atmospheric conditions, they could reach between À20 and 60 C during cold nights and sunny days-resulting in thermal stresses that could produce delaminations and cracks.…”

Numerical Evaluation of Slender Glass Panel with Complex Geometry Subjected to Static Load and Soft-body Impact

“…This relates particularly to the situations where such panels are required to ensure protection of neighboring walkways and have to bear the loads of persons leaning against the glass. To meet these requirements, the panels are usually made of laminated glass which shows improved post-breakage performance [6,7]. In case of breakage of a single sheet in the laminated glass, the interlayer prevents the fragments from being scattered.…”