The tempering of glass and the failure of tempered glass plates with pin-loaded joints: Modelling and simulation

Tempering is a thermal process to strengthen glass by generating superficial compressive stresses. These residual stresses must be determined and accounted for in the design of tempered glass structures. The present work is concerned with tempered glass plates assembled by pin-loaded joints. In such a structure, a hole in a glass plate is reinforced by a steel ring glued to the glass plate by means of a thin soft resin layer. To determine the residual stresses in a holed tempered glass plate, the tempering process of the latter is first modelled and numerically simulated. In addition, the residual stresses thus determined are then compared with those issued from the photoelasticity measurement. Next, the mechanical behavior of the soft resin is also modelled and experimentally identified. Finally, the failure process of tempered glass plates with pin-loaded joints is analyzed numerically and experimentally, in which unilateral contact, friction, damage and residual stresses are involved. The numerical results obtained by the finite element method turn out to be in good agreement with the experimental ones from real-size tests.