Structural behavior of window laminated glass plies using new interlayer materials

In most cases for the structural design of architectural glazing systems under a wide range of environmental conditions, the designers follow procedures provided by model building codes to design window glass. These codes commonly use design charts to determine design strength based on nominal glass thickness and aspect ratio. Glass plies are the principal components of laminated glass (LG) where a thin ply of elastomeric material Polyvinyl butyral (PVB) is used to bond glass plies (normally two plies) to form the LG. Because of the reduction in LG design strength by most building codes and design guidelines, designers avoid architectural LG applications, other than for safety consideration. In this research a higher order mathematical model based on Mindlin plate theory is presented. LG was modeled using finite element methodology with new interlayer (NI). It consists of two plies of PVB with a hard ply of film material in between. In the FEM, properties of PVB/film material can be easily controlled regardless of their thicknesses. The finite element model (FEM) was extended to account the design recommendations of ASTM (2012) to develop the design charts for LG with NI. The current FEM was verified and used to study the stresses transformation through NI. Design charts for samples of LG with NI were developed and presented. It has been found that using NI enhances the total behavior of LG and reflects on the design charts for this type of interlayer material.