Corrugated glass as improvement to the structural resistance of glass

Rob Nijsse

It is a well known fact that if we take a flat piece of paper in our hands it is a weak, and slack.. However if you fold this piece of paper a few times the structural behaviour changes from weak to strong and form slack to stiff. .Luckily enough the glass manufacturing firms are more and more capable to create folded,or better, corrugated glass. Therefore we have started to create glass structures in corrugated glass. Two well known buildings have incorporated corrugated glass in their facades. They are the Casa da Musica in Porto (P),(architect OMA) and The Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp (B), (architect Neutelings Riedijk). Another project is now on the drawing boards; the University Library in Qatar (architect OMA) where a diamond shaped building has on four sides large facades composed by corrugated, insulated glass units up to a height of 17 meter. In these three buildings the corrugated glass panels are used to create, with a relatively thin sheet of glass an all glass facade without hardly any steel components. In this paper also possible future applications will be dealt with like the use of corrugated glass in floors, walls and roofs.

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The Authors

Prof. Robert Nijsse University of Delft • Since finishing his study in Structural Engineering at the University of Delft in 1979 Rob Nijsse has worked as a structural engineer at the ABT consulting engineering firm in Arnhem, the Netherland... Read more