Spontaneous glass breakage in hot bent, heat-strengthened, laminated glass panels

Prof.dr.ir. Mick Eekhout, TU Delft, Octatube & Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Niderehe, Consultant

In a project in the Netherlands hot bent, laminated, heat-strengthened glass was used in a cylindrically shaped roof. Spontaneous breakage of glass panels did start shortly after installation of the glass panels started, and continued for months afterwards. Only the outside panes of the laminated glass broke. The loading causing the breakage was determined to be a temperature gradient in the glass between the warmer inside under the roof and the colder outside air. The temperature induced stresses were calculated to be well below the expected failure stress even of annealed float glass, and the reason for the breakage was found in a faulty production procedure during the heat strengthening process. After replacing the panels with the same product from a different supplier with a different production process the breakages stopped. Visual indications that might suggest this problem within a product are given in the paper.

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The Authors

Mr. Mick Eekhout Prof. Dr. Octatube Space Structures Prof. Dr. Ir. Mick Eekhout is professor for product development at the faculty of architecture at Technical University Delft, The Netherlands. He runs his own architectural office since 1975. In 1983 ... Read more