On the use of glass as a construction material

摘要

In modern architecture exists a strong tendency to create a maximum transparency in buildings. The material that perfectly allows to visually dematerialise building components is glass. Glass has an excellent transparency rate and is strong. On the other hand, special engineering attention is needed because of its brittle nature. In spite of this unfavourable characteristic, stunning examples exist of buildings in which the primary, load-bearing structure is made of glass. Some general principles are explained on how to cope with strength calculations, which are based on fracture mechanics and statistics. However, also buckling problems can play an important role, especially for the design of glass beams. The numerical as well as the experimental buckling analysis of glass beams is given attention. Several examples are shown of laboratory experiments of real applications in glass that demonstrate the structural behaviour, strength and safety principles. Finally, some trends for future development are highlighted.