Impact Loading on Glass Panes by Soft Body Impact - Theoretical Analysis and Experimental Verification

The behavior of glass panes under impact loading plays an important role in the design of glass structures. The brittleness of glass and its linear-elastic stress-strain-relation without plastic deformability can lead to an instantaneous and disastrous failure under both hard and soft body impact. Moreover, impact loads very often exceed "usual" loads (e.g. wind loads, snow loads, live loads). The resistance of glass to an impact is usually lower than those of most building materials and deserves an exact analysis to ensure that its design is in accordance with safety conditions.

At our Institute extensive theoretical and experimental work has been done to develop calculation and design methods for soft-body impact on glass panes. Test results, finite element-calculations and simplified dynamic modeling are in good agreement and the development of equivalent static loads for the impact gives engineers an easy-to-handle tool in daily design work. Future efforts will concentrate on the behavior of pin-point-supported glass panes and insulating glass units under impact loading.

This article gives a very brief overview over the results that were obtained. detailed information can be found in [16].

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The Authors

Prof. Dr. Jens Schneider Prof. Dr.-Ing. TU Darmstadt Jens Schneider works for Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, a world leading structural engineering office. His main working field are glass structures and structural glass. His special fields are str... Read more