Simplified Procedure for Capacity Check of Historic Monolithic Glass Windows under Soft-Body Collision/Bird-Strike

Abstract

Differing from present structural design procedures, most of the existing glass windows and even historic components in traditional/old buildings are not specifically designed to resist possible accidental loads. Rather thin monolithic ordinary annealed glass panels can be found in vertical non-structural envelopes, where they are often arranged to cover large surfaces. As such, an accidental glass fracture could originate even from rather common and moderate impact events and result in severe risk for people, due to propagation of dangerous shards from these vulnerable and fragile building components. To assess potential risks and support possible mitigation strategies, the present study is focused on the bird-strike analysis of existing/historic linearly restrained non-structural glass windows, based on a parametric Smoothed-Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH)–Finite Element (FE) model. Starting from a 1 m–wide and 1.5 m–high configuration, the attention is first given to various influencing parameters, such as impactor features (mass, 0.35–1.81 kg; impact speed, 0–40 m/s; and, thus, impact energy) and the target window (glass thickness, 4–6 mm; impact point; and, thus, glass stiffness). Local and global effects due to parametric localized bird-strikes are discussed based on non-linear dynamic numerical analyses and in terms of expected deflections, tensile stress peaks, and damage extension/severity (i.e., D1 to D3 damage levels). Scale effects are also examined for a case-study historic envelope (≈7 m in total size, 5 mm in thickness), and one of its 2.58 m × 3.3 m large glass components. Furthermore, a simplified empirical approach based on analytical formulations and normalized charts is proposed for a preliminary vulnerability assessment of historic monolithic glass envelopes, including parameters to account for impactor features and glass panel size/thickness, based on vibration-frequency considerations.