Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of Glass Panes Exposed to Radiant Heating

Abstract

Despite much research and applications, glass material and its use in buildings is still challenging for engineers due to its inherent brittleness and characteristic features such as sensitivity to stress concentrations, reduction in strength over time and from temperature, and breakage due to the stresses that may build up because of thermal gradients. This paper presents the results of an original test series carried out on monolithic glass panes with the dimensions of 500 × 500 mm2 and different thicknesses, under the exposure to radiant heating. The research study also includes a one-dimensional (1D) heat transfer model and a numerical, three-dimensional (3D) thermo-mechanical model that are used to investigate in greater detail the phenomena observed during the experiments. As shown, the behaviour of glass under radiant heating is rather complex and confirms the high vulnerability of this material for building applications. The usability and potential of thermo-mechanical numerical models is discussed towards experimental feedback.

Keywords

• structural glass
• structural fire safety
• finite element modelling
• thermo-mechanical modelling