From design by testing to structural verification of glass: the role of subcritical crack propagation (original) (raw)

Abstract

There are in general two main issues associated with the “structural” use of glass. On the one hand, analytical verifications have to be made to meet the load bearing capacity requirements based upon structural models. On the other hand, a common practice is to test a few full-scale prototypes and verify that they break at a stress level higher than the design strength. However, the strength of the structural element strongly depends upon several aspects associated with the opening of cracks on the material surface. Surface defectiveness, specimen size, subcritical crack speed, load history and type of stress, may all strongly influence the material gross response. Starting from a consolidated model of subcritical crack propagation and a distribution à la Weibull of defects, an analytical approach to these problems is now proposed. Safety domains are calculated and new verification formulae for the combination of variable actions are presented. The probability of glass failure for a...

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