Contrast of a Probabilistic Design Model for Laminated Glass Plates

Abstract

As other ceramic materials, glass presents a brittle behaviour and a broad scatter of strength results, due to the random distribution of micro-cracks on its surface. On the other hand, the specific properties of glass and Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) are combined in laminated glass, resulting in a viscoelastic behaviour for the whole assembly. In this paper, a probabilistic design model is proposed for laminated glass plates of annealed and tempered glass, taking into account the time-dependent properties of the PVB interlayer and the glass characterization by means of a three-parameter Weibull cumulative distribution function of critical stresses. To validate the model proposed, an experimental programme was carried out using laminated glazing of 1.4 m x 1.4 m, varying the kind of glass, thickness and boundary conditions.