Dynamic three-dimensional stress prediction of window glass under thermal loading

The thermal stress upon window glass is thought as the main cause of glass fracture under thermal or fire loads. A finite element program, called as EASY, was developed to investigate the dynamic thermal stress distribution upon glass in this work. A Newmark time integration method was used as the dynamic response scheme in the code. The EASY result on thermal stress agrees well with an ANSYS result, which indicates that EASY can be used to simulate the thermal stress distribution and predict the cracking of window glass under thermal loading. Furthermore, an experimental case was used to disclose how the thermal stress is accumulated and its distribution. The maximum tensile and compressive stresses are formed at where the high temperature and low temperature intersection. The investigated case shows the experimental crack time is 70 s and the simulated crack time is 66 s, which indicates that the EASY code results in the reliably result to predict the first crack of glass under thermal or fire load.

► A dynamic thermal stress program was developed.
► The program can simulate the thermal stress distribution and predict the crack of window glass under thermal loading.
► An experimental case was studied to disclose how the thermal stress is accumulated and its distribution.