Practical expressions for the design of DGUs. The BAM approach

Abstract

The structural response of Double Glazing Units (DGUs), composed by two glass panes held together by structural edge seals, entrapping a gas for thermal and acoustic insulation, is governed by the load sharing between the glass elements, due to a complex interaction with the gas in the interpane space. Various methods are proposed by standards to evaluate it when DGUs are subjected to climatic loads and/or uniform pressure, but the case of line distributed and punctual load usually requires the use of FEM softwares.Very recently, a new approach -the Betti’s Analytical Method (BAM)- has been proposed for the evaluation of the load sharing in DGUs under the most various boundary and loading conditions. Here, the method is revised, providing compact formulas and synthetic tables for ease of reference and immediate applicability, for both rectangular and triangular DGUs. Furthermore, the BAM approach is validated by means of comparison with numerical results obtained with MEPLA ISO software. For DGUs made of laminated glass panels, a practical approach, based on the use of the Enhanced Effective Thickness (EET) model, is suggested, and its accuracy is validated by means of numerical comparisons.