Multifunctional Building Material Glass - A Colourful Bunch Of Requirements
Building Material Glass - Considerations Of Modern Architectural Glass Design
Presented on October 13, 2022 at Facade Tectonics 2022 World Congress
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Overview
Abstract
Glass as a building material plays a very important role in modern architecture, determines our visual landscape, and fulfills practical functions individually customized to versatile needs. No matter if thermal insulation, solar control or sound insulation, particular design effects, safety glass or glass as a component of solar-energy assemblies – the industry currently provides glass products with individual technical properties appropriate for various purpose and performance. Looking at the use of glass today, requires to understanding different topics related to the building material glass itself such as anisotropy effects, the technical specifications of the huge variety of glass configurations but also how to define the appropriate glass thickness.
Authors
Michael Elstner
Director of Technical Advisory Service & Strategic Communication
AGC Glass
michael.elstner@agc.com
Steffen Schäfer
AGC INTERPANE
steffer.schaefer@interpane.com
Keywords
Introduction
State-of-the-art glass design in building is a challenge for all parties involved: architects, engineers, consultants as well as suppliers and contractors. The building material glass must comply with various specifications and requirements. It starts with structural requirements, goes on with production capabilities, and ends up with visual and aesthetic expectations. Figure 1 summarizes all of it in a simplified manner. Popular topics prioritized in the last years’s papers, are summarized here.
The last two decades have been a major step forward for the application of glass. Due to advanced production technologies, progress in material analytics and also related to the determining the technical data, the options to use glass in many different applications and with improved quality standards . Also, the interest in research about the material glass grew over the last 20 years, to better understand the behavior and the properties of glass. Figure 1 is illustrating generally which requirements are set to the building product glass. Depending on the application some of these requirements are voluntary or mandatory or even some more could apply. It is important that all parties work together right in time to reach the expected goal.
This paper describes some of the important topics which we have been addressed over the last years. It must be mentioned that the decision making process should take into account but not be limited to these four topics, but also consider others aspects as shown in Figure 1.
Technical Data of Glass Products
To use glass in different building applications, it must be further processed into architectural glazing products which can fulfill the multiple requirements set by regulations or the design of a
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Anisotropy Effects
Amongst the latest architectural glass requirements, visible anisotropic effects acquired special relevance over the last years as increasing amounts of heat-treated glass were used in buildings to meet the stringent
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Thermal Stress Analysis
The use of glass in windows and curtain walls in residential as well as in high-rise buildings needs to be designed very carefully. Apart from typical engineering practices which addresses
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Structural Calculation of Glass
ASTM E1300 is the main US standard for determining the load resistance of glass in buildings. The safety concept is based on a “Failure Prediction Model (FPM)”. Depending on the
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Conclusion
The four topics described above are not new subjects. But it shows that there is still a great potential for basic research in glass appropriate and sustainable design For certain
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Rights and Permissions
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