Stiffness of Laminated Glass – Influence of Different Loading Conditions

Ir.-arch. Dieter Callewaert, ir. Didier Delincé, prof. dr. ir-arch. Jan Belis and prof. dr. ir. Rudy Van Impe

It is generally known that the stiffness of laminated glass varies between two ultimate states: the lower limit corresponds to the sum of the stiffness of the individual glass sheets (as if there were no interaction between the different layers), while the upper limit corresponds to the stiffness of a monolithic glass sheet with a thickness equal to the overall thickness of the laminate. Because the difference between these two extremes is significant (e.g. a factor of four for laminates with two glass sheets with equal thickness), it is quite important to have a good understanding of this behaviour.

Although these two limits exist for all possible loading conditions, the type of loading, the temperature, the load duration, as well as the dimensions of the element can determine whether a laminate with certain material properties leans towards the upper limit, or towards the lower one. Because of this influence, it makes little sense to make a generalised statement concerning the actual stiffness of laminates.

At the laboratory for Research on Structural Models, different series of finite element analyses are executed to increase the insight in this complex subject, in particular for bending and torsion. With this, more rational choices can be made when deciding on the composition of laminated glass elements.

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The Authors

	Mr. Dieter Callewaert ir-arch UGent Dieter Callewaert is a civil engineer-architect. He graduated in 2006 at Ghent University in Belgium. In september 2006 he started as a PhD researcher at the Laboratory for Research on structural Mode... Read more
	Mr. Didier Delince Assitant Laboratory for research on structural models (LMO), Ghent University (UGent) Didier Delincé received his degree of civil engineer construction from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in 2002. He worked as researcher at the Belgian Building Research Institute (BBRI) for... Read more
	Prof. Dr. Jan Belis Prof. dr. ir.-arch. Ghent University - LMO Jan Belis holds a degree in civil engineering/architecture and a PhD degree in structural engineering from Ghent University, Belgium. Since 2006, he is assistant professor at the same institute. His r... Read more