Shear glass panels with point-fixed mechanical connections: Finite-Element numerical investigation and buckling design recommendations

• Shear buckling behaviour of point supported glass walls.
• Extended FE studies validated to past experimental and numerical data.
• Discussion of major effects due to different point fixing configurations.
• Formulation of analytical fitting curves for the calculation of the Euler’s critical load.
• Validation of a standardized buckling design method.

In the paper, an extensive Finite-Element (FE) numerical study is carried out on glass shear walls with point mechanical connectors. Based on calibration of FE models to experimental and numerical data of literature, both linear bifurcation analyses (lba) and incremental nonlinear static simulations (inls) are performed, in order to assess the shear buckling response of the examined structural panels. Analytical fitting curves are proposed for the shear buckling reduction factor, so that the Euler’s critical load associated to a given number of point connectors could be correctly calculated. Based on extensive inls analyses, the buckling failure mechanism is emphasised for a wide set of geometrical configurations of practical interest. Finally, simple buckling design considerations derived from earlier research projects are extended to glass shear walls with point mechanical connectors.