Engineers Break Architectural Barriers with Structural Glass
Stutzki Engineering Employs Abaqus FEA to Help Design the Material in a New Role
Glass breaks. When it reaches a certain stress level it doesn’t yield, it shatters, without warning or predictable focal point. But mankind has been creating beauty and utility out of glass for more than 4,000 years. Ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians melted silica (quartz) sand to make beads and molded vessels. The Phoenicians discovered glass-blowing and seventh-century Syrians spun circular windows out of it. The material’s appealing translucency has persisted in art and architecture down through the ages, from the elaborate stained casements of France’s Chartres cathedral to the crystalline façade of a New York City skyscraper.
Modern industrial technology has made producing glass a precision routine. Sheets of it were drawn vertically out of melted pools well into the last century, but now most commercial product is extruded horizontally, floated on a bed of molten tin, cooled, shaped, checked for defects and cut into lengths. Thanks to ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standard E1300, the load-resistance of glass is tightly regulated. The chemical and structural composition of the material can be manipulated so that a car windshield will safely crumble, or the window of an oceanside home will withstand hurricane force winds. Glass has also become more interactive with the environment: Insulation from temperature extremes, as well as UV protection from sunlight, can all be formulated right into the material recipe.