Engineering design of laminated safety glass considering the shear coupling: a review

Abstract

The use of glass and, in particular, laminated glass (LG) in the building industry is a continuously rising trend. Thus, in order ensure a safe fracture and a post-breakage load bearing capacity but still be economical, the consideration of the shear transfer by the polymeric interlayer between the glass panes is gaining importance in the structural design. This also relates to future European harmonised product and design standards in glass construction. In addition to simple models using particular shear modulus values for certain load situations and temperatures, linear viscoelastic material models for the interlayer can be applied for more complex design situations. We present the basics of mechanical modelling of the time- and temperature dependent material behaviour of polymers used in LG. The procedure for the experimental determination of the material parameters is explained for the most common product polyvinyl butyral. For practical application in glass design, different standards (national and international) and other building regulations are compared. The analysis of the compliant composite shows that already low shear modulus values lead to a significant reduction in glass stresses. Finally, a comparative example shows the design of laminated glass considering the shear transfer with different methods.