GEOMETRIC NON LINEAR STATIC ANALYSIS OF PERIMETRICALLY SUPPORTED GLASS PLATES

UNDER WIND PRESSURE

Dipl. Ing. . otalakidis Konstantinos

Glasscon SA

Summary

A three dimensional truss for the simulation of glass plates and a short computer program
for its nonlinear static analysis by the method of incremental loading, are proposed.
Because of the large deflections perpendicularly to the plane of the glass compared to
its thickness, within each loading increment, the equilibrium and stiffness conditions are
written with respect to the deformed structure. An application is presented, on a
rectangular glass plate, perimentrically simply supported, subjected to wind pressure. It is
observed that the large deflections of glass plate lead to a partly substitution of the
bending plate behavior by a tensioned membrane behavior, which is favorable.
Introduction
During the last years the use of glass in building-construction has been constantly
expanding. Large glass surfaces, like glass-facades, shells, pyramids and glass shelters
tend to replace the conventional architecture and construction with large transparent
membranes. The capability to manufacture glass with increased physical and
mechanical resistance (i.e. Securit glass, heat strengthened) has expanded the glass
applications, diminished its required thickness (5-19 mm), allows for large openings (2,03,0 m) and has made glass constructions viable even under great stress ( high loads of
wind pressure, snow, temperature differences etc.)
Due to the small thickness, the large openings and the high loads, the glass plates
appear to have large deflections perpendicularly to the plane of the glass (von Karman
plates) 2. Thus, there is a geometric non linearity. On the contrary, there is not usually
physical non linearity of the tension stress law that still applies in practice in the linear
elasticity zone until the first breakage occurs.
For the non linear analysis of a glass plate, we could first perform elements defining with
the help of large computer program widely used, i.e. SAP2000, by the Finite Elements
Method, and then to apply the method of incremental loading in which, with every small
increase of the load, the equilibrium and stiffness conditions are written with respect to
the deformed structure.
The present study uses, instead of the usual finite elements, a three dimensional truss for
the simulation of the glass plate, that allows in a very simple manner, to lay down the
equilibrium and stiffness conditions with respect to the deformed structure, in every step
of the incremental loading . A short special program for the stepwise loading of the

proposed truss model with the use of only 220 FORTRAN commands has been designed.
The advantage of this PC program, besides being simple and short, is its transparency,
i.e. the complete command catalogue is provided.

The proposed truss model

2.1

Description of the model

We consider a rectangular glass plate (Diagram 1a), with openings lz, ly and thickness d,
that is supported perimetrically and subject to wind pressure w perpendicularly to its
plane, which is the critical loading of the glass plate, that forms the basis upon the
dimensioning is performed.
Due to the dual symmetry of the structure and the loading, we can study only the of
the glass plate (Diagram 1b) placing the necessary supports on the symmetry axes. In
the case of the square glass plate, there is also symmetry with respect to the diagonals.
The under consideration is separated to elementary rectangular of dimensions a*b*d
(Diagram 1c). Each one of these is simulated by a three dimensional truss (Diagram 1d),
in which all the sides and diagonals of the simulated rectangular parallelepied are bars.

2.2

Determining the cross-sections of the bars

The bars of one elementary truss model of the glass plate (Diagram 1d) can be
separated into 7 groups: 4 bars with respect to the sides , y, z along the 3 main
directions of the parallelepiped, 4 bars with respect to the seat diagonals parallel to
each one of the 3 main planes xy, xz, yz of the parallelepiped and finally 4 bars along
the internal diagonals of the parallelepiped (7*4=28 in total). The corresponding crosssections of the 7 groups of bars are represented as , Ay , Az , Axy , A xz , Ayz , Axyz .
Due to small thickness of the glass plates, in comparison to its other two dimensions, we
consider that only the bars along x contribute to the tension stress behavior along the x
direction of the thickness of the plate. The cross- sections of the remaining bars can be
defined by the bi-axial tension - stress behavior within the glass plate plane. Furthermore,
due to small thickness of the glass plate also, it is wise to separate the cross- sections of
the remaining six plate bars into groups of two, Ay = Axy , Az = A xz , Ayz = Axyz .
The combination of the relations that apply to the linear elastic isotropic bi-axial tension
stress behavior of the simulated parallelepiped and the node forces deflections of the
truss model and the principle that = 0,2 for the Poisson ratio, provides the cross- sections
of the bars to be determined.

2.3

Tension stress (-) laws of the bars

The bars of the proposed truss model can obey to non linear single-axis tension stress laws of the glass that include breakage under tension, plastic leakage, attenuation
and break like the law described in Diagram 2a.
Experimental data and numerical applications show that for the usual loadings (critical
loading is the wind pressure), the tensions and the stresses of the glass plate reside within
the linear elastic area, unless breakage due to tensions has occurred.
Therefore, we can use the linear tension - stress law = * (Diagram 2b) (=73000
Pa) for the bars of the truss model, until the breakage due to tension occurs (tension
resistance t 50 Pa). At that point the incremental loading of the glass plate is
interrupted.
2.4

PC program for the incremental loading of the truss model

A short PC program (approximately 220 FORTRAN commands) for the geometric non
linear static analysis of the proposed truss has been designed with the use of the method
of incremental loading. In every step the equilibrium and stiffness conditions are written
with respect to the deformed structure, taking into account the geometric non linearity
due to the large deflections.
In the present PC program, due to the very small thickness of the plate compared to its
other two dimensions, the bars along the thickness of the plate have very small length
and very large cross-section and consequently larger stiffness compared to the other
bars and mainly compared to the stiffness with respect to the deflection of the bar
perpendicularly to its plane. This problem, which creates errors of rounding due to the
small differences of large numbers, is overcome by two techniques: all variables are
declared as double precision variables and additionally the stiffness of the bars is
decreased artificially, i.e. 1000 times, along the thickness of the plate.
3

Application

The proposed three dimension truss model and the PC program for the incremental
loading are applied to a rectangular glass plate with openings 1,0 * 2,0 and thickness
8,0mm, perimetrically supported, that is subjected to wind pressure w. The elasticity
measure of the glass is = 73000 P = 7300 kN/cm2 and the tension resistance is t = 50
P = 5,0 kN/cm2. We can consider that the linear law =* applies until the first
breakage occurs. The loading is applied incrementally in steps of 1,0 kPa = 1,0 kN/m2.
The stress and the tension of the glass plate in every step of the loading are to be
defined. At last we have to determine for which amplitude of the wind pressure max w
the first tension breakage of the glass will occur and which will be the maximum
deflection in the centre of the glass plate at the time of failure.
We observe that for wind pressure max w 16,0 kPa = 16,0 kN/m2 , the first tension
breakage occurs in the central area of the plate, while the max deflection at the
moment of the failure is max = 28,73 mm. These calculation relults are compared to the
recently published experimental results 1, where for three samples of glass plates with
the same gometric, mechanical and loading characteristics of the present application,

the values w = 18,3, 16,3 15,4 kPa for wind pressure and max = 25,9 , 31,8 32,2
mm for the maximum deflections were measured at the time of failure. Therefore, a
satisfactory approach of the calculation results of the proposed simulation model and
the experimental results is observed.
Based on the calculation results, the deformed plate and the free object diagram for the
one fourth of the glass plate are designed in Diagram 3a and in Diagram 3b
respectively, which correspond to the failure time. At last the tensions of the bars of the
truss model that, at the time of failure, have absolute value greater than 3,0 kN/cm2 , are
designed in Diagram 3c.
4

Notes

When the loading of the glass plate is applied from the start and not incrementally, the
initial stiffness record that has been laid down with respect to the not deformed structure
is used and the geometric non linearity due to large deflections is not taken into
account. The incremental loading and the layout of the stiffness and equilibrium
conditions with respect to the deformed structure are not only more realistic, but provide
smaller tensions, stresses and deflections. This is due to fact that as the deflections of the
glass plate increase, larger part of the bending plate functionality is replaced by the
tensioned membrane functionality 2. The latter is favorable; it causes smaller tensions,
stresses and deflections. This is explained in Diagram 4, where we can see that it is
required to have a maximum deflection in the centre of the plate larger than the one
sixth of the thickness of the plate (> d/6), in order to have the membrane tension
smaller than the maximum bending tension .

Conclusions

Due to the small thickness of the glass plates, their large openings and the high
loading (critical loading is the wind pressure) the deflections perpendicularly to their
plane are large compared to their thickness (von Karman plate), causing in this way
geometric non linear behavior of the bending glass plate. On the contrary, there is no
physical non linearity of the tension stress law of the glass, which remains within the
linear elasticity area for usual loading, until the first breakage due to tension occurs. For
the above mentioned reasons, the non linear static analysis should be performed with
the incremental loading method and in every small increment of the loading, the
equilibrium and stiffness conditions should be written with respect to the deformed
structure. The proposed three dimensional truss model and the PC program have been
applied to the geometric non linear static analysis of a rectangular glass plate,
perimetrically supported, subject to wind pressure. The calculated results have been
compared to the experimental results published recently and have been found to be
very close.
The larger the deflections of the glass plates perpendicularly to its plane, the larger
the share of the functionality of the bending plate that is replaced by the functionality of
the tensioned membrane. The latter is favorable because it causes smaller tensions and
stresses, as explained with the use of a simple example.

 Due to the large glass resistance to tension (due to stress), compared to the
concrete, tu = 50 Pa > 5 MPa, the glass plates can endure high loads with small
thickness (5-19 mm) and large openings (2,0 3,0 m). The wind pressure, which constitutes
the critical loading, can reach 20 Pa, in usual cases, whereas the maximum deflection
in the centre of the glass plate can reach 4 cm at the time of failure,.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1

Norville Scott H., Bove Paul M., Sherridan Darrel L., Lawrence Stacey L. Strength of
new heat treated window glass lites and laminated glass units. Journal of
Structural Engineering ASCE. March 1993, p.891-901
Vallabhan Girija C.V. Iterative analysis of nonlinear glass plates. Journal of
Structural Engineering ASCE. February 1983, p.489-502.