Structural opportunities for glass

Abstract

The use of glass has increased in the last decade. But glass is still not well known by designers because it has an unusual behavior when loaded, it is brittle. Glass acquires many of its characteristics during it manufacturing process, which is described. Then different structural improvements can be obtained, by treatments and assemblies and its latest developments. Mechanical behavior of glass is studied, and this completes the description of glass as a structural material. A second step is to study how glass is used in civil engineering, in a building's structural system. The tendency to "make the most of glass" has motivated designers to seek to improve the support system, often a weak aspect of glass in building. They are thus described as an important development that permits high performance glass structures. Finally, the latest improvements in the structural design and model of glass that have led to elaborated structures using glass are described.