Buckling behaviour of laminated glass panel in compression

Abstract

There is a significant increase in the application of laminated glass panel in the modern and innovative construction industry. Glass element is frequently used as a structural component because of its aesthetic and allows abundance of daylight shining in through in which leads to energy saving. The glazing consists of two thin glass plates bonded together by a thin core material called polyvinyl-butyral (PVB). A laminated glass panel is typically brittle and slender, thus frequently subjected to buckling. This paper focuses on the load-carrying behaviour of laminated glass panel supported merely along four edges subjected to compressive force. A 1 m x 1 m laminated glass panel with glass plies of 8 mm thick and the interlayer thickness of 1.52 mm is modeled and analyzed through nonlinear static analysis by using ABAQUS finite element (FE) analysis software. The behaviour of the laminated glass panel under buckling and post-buckling analysis was presented. Analytical approach by Zenkert’s formulation based on the theory of sandwich is utilized to validate the technique used to build the FE model of the glass panel. Essentially, the critical buckling load and the load-displacement relationship are in a good agreement with the analytical formulation and the empirical study respectively. In addition, the significant effect of the interlayer and the slenderness aspect of the panel are also studied. This involves parametric analysis of the configuration of the different interlayer stiffness and the aspect ratio length to width (a/b) of the glass panel. It was found that the rate of decrement of buckling load is indirectly proportionate to the rate of increment of (a/b) ratio. This study also shows that the buckling load of a laminated glass panel depended very much on the slenderness aspect of the structure.