Voronoi-FDEM concept for modelling post-fracture response of progressively damaged structural glass

Abstract

Accidental breakage of glass due to its brittle feature leads to the concern about the post-fracture capability of structural glass components. The post-fracture response of progressively damaged structural glass components is hence essential to be investigated. To overcome the difficulties in modelling the fractured glass, this work proposes a Voronoi based numerical model for reconstructing and modelling the fractured tempered glass. The fracture morphology corresponding to different elastic strain energy levels of tempered glass can be generated via introducing various distribution types and parameters of fragment size and sphericity in Voronoi tessellation. A numerical study on the static response of multi-layered structural glass elements subjected to in-plane load in various partial damaged scenarios is then carried out. Through employing appropriate reconstruction parameters, a good agreement can be found between the numerical post-fracture response and the experimental data. The applicability of the proposed model in the out-of-plane load scenario is subsequently examined. The post-fracture stiffness and flexural effective thickness corresponding to different damage configurations and interlayer properties in this load case is also identified and discussed. The results show that the proposed modelling approach can well produce the reliable post-fracture response of structural glass elements in the examined load cases.