Designing with glass – strength and loadbearing behaviour
However, damage to the microstructure within
the body of the glass and vents and scratches
on the surface give rise to Griffith flaws (fig. 2.2.1)
with extremely high stress peaks when the ele-
ment is subjected to mechanical actions. Glass
is different to many other materials in that these
stress peaks cannot be dissipated by means of
plastic deformation. As surface flaws can never
be avoided at edges or around drilled holes,
only a fraction of the real material strength can
be exploited in a building component (fig. 2.2.2).
Upon exceeding a critical (tensile) stress, the
crack begins to grow at the tip of a notch or
crater. In some circumstances this growth only
takes place in small steps, coming to a halt in
between. In fracture mechanics this slow or
“stable” crack growth is regarded as subcriti-
cal, and is primarily determined by the duration
of the load. Short-term loads lead to higher
allowable stresses than long-term loads. The
subcritical crack growth is influenced by chem-
ical reactions at the tip of the crack; for exam-
ple, a high ambient humidity accelerates crack-
ing, but other “crack-healing” effects have also
been observed. Once the critical crack growth
velocity has been exceeded, a crack becomes
unstable, i.e. the widening process accelerates
rapidly. This then leads to sudden failure of the
glass element.
As the subcritical crack growth increases with
long-term mechanical loads and as a result of
chemical reactions taking place near the tip of
the crack, it is necessary to reduce substantial-
ly the actual maximum stress of a component
that has been in use for many years to a value
well below that determined in short-term tests
(fig. 2.2.3).
Surface structure
Owing to the many different loads that can
occur in construction, a glass element can be
expected to suffer damage from a variety of
mechanical sources, e.g. scratches, cleaning,
wind erosion, during its long life (fig. 2.2.4). Fur-
thermore, mechanical or chemical treatments,
e.g. cutting, grinding, sand-blasting, acid etch-
ing, coating or printing, affect the surface struc-
ture and hence the strength. More severe inher-
ent damage is caused at edges and especially
the sides of drilled holes; such damage cannot
be rectified by subsequent polishing because
the deep cracks responsible for failure, the
ones where fracture of the pane originates, are
not fully reached by the polishing operations.
Cracks in the glass surface can be counteract-
ed (“overcompressed”) by introducing a com-
pressive prestress (see “Prestressing”, p. 92).
The beneficial compressive prestress is only
reduced by tensile or tensile bending stresses
caused by external actions. Consequently, crack
growth is restricted and the usable strength of
the glass increased. The compressive stress
can be introduced into the surface of the glass
by way of external prestressing forces or ther-
mal or chemical processes during manufacture.
Thanks to modern manufacturing processes,
the basic glass product most frequently
encountered in the building industry – float glass
made from soda-lime-silica glass – exhibits
parallel surfaces free from distortion. According
to DIN 1249-3, float glass is classed as polished
plate glass. In the float glass process, the con- < 0.01 mm, 45 MPa
0.01 mm, 40 MPa
tinuous ribbon of liquid glass floats on a bath of 0.02 mm, 35 MPa
molten tin, which results in high-quality glass 0.05 mm, 30 MPa
surfaces on the air side as well as the tin side. 0.10 mm, 25 MPa
1a > 0.10 mm, 20 MPa
In the subsequent processing to form laminated
safety glass, it is sometimes necessary to take
these sides (i.e. air side or tin side) into account.
For example, when using the Sentry Glas® Plus
interlayer material, it is always the tin side that
is bonded to the interlayer, whereas coatings
on float glass intended to modify the thermal
insulation or radiation reflection properties are
applied to the air side in order to avoid uneven
colour effects in the finished coated panes. The a 2b 3c
slightly milky appearance of the tin side under
ultraviolet light reveals the differences in the
surfaces. <
The thermal toughening of float glass gives rise
to small corrugations in the surface of the glass.
As the glass leaves the furnace it is cooled 2b
abruptly while being conveyed on rollers and
>
cylinders, which produces these minor corru-
gations. In addition, the strong blasts of cold air
used for cooling the glass cause localized
compaction which can manifest itself as dark b 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 [MPa]
patches on the pane under certain lighting con-
ditions.
3c
Strength
As already explained, the usable strength of a
2b
glass building component is not a pure material
property but instead a variable dependent on
the degree of damage to the surface of the 1a
glass (including edges and drilled holes). The
probability that a local stress generated by a
mechanical action coincides with critical inher- c 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 [MPa]
ent damage (crack depth) can only be allowed
for in the design by way of statistical methods.
A corresponding design method, based on the
probability of failure, has been worked out for
many relevant, practical cases. The size and 3
c
2b
distribution of microscopic cracks play key 1a
roles here. This is also made very clear by the
evaluation of fracture tests. Even glass fresh
from the production line exhibits a wide range
of strengths, but relatively high on average. Up d 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 [MPa]
to the time of installation and throughout the life 2.2.4
of the structure, damage to the surface of the
glass “accumulates” so that the probability of a
critical crack forming in a pane rises. There-
fore, glasses with inherent damage have lower
average strengths, but also considerably nar-
rower statistical distributions, than those
straight from the factory. The same relationship 2.2.4 Statistical distribution of glass strength due to
applies to the size of the (test) surfaces under surface damage
a Distribution of surface damage for
observation: although brand-new panes are
1 new glass
often used for the experimental determination 2 weathered glass
of the strength of glass, it is, however, very 3 glass with inherent damage
much better to examine older panes with inher- b Frequency distribution for strength of weath-
ent damage when assessing the reliability of ered glass determined in fracture tests
c Normal distribution curves for strength deter-
the strength forecast. If the inherent damage is mined in fracture tests
realistic, i.e. corresponds to the most unfavour- d Cumulative frequency curves (integral of
able surface damage that can be expected, distribution)
91