Stress-strain state of Insulated Glass Unit in structural glazing systems

Article presents the analysis of classical and structural ways of fastening of the glass unit subjected to uniformly distributed wind load under the various conditions: modification of the fixing step in horizontal and vertical direction, change of gas-filled gap and glass panel thicknesses. Calculation is performed in FEM-based SJ Mepla software for three most common types of glass units of the size of 1200×1200 mm, 2400×1200 mm and 3600×1200 mm. On the basis of obtained results, it is possible to conclude that modification of the fixing step in horizontal direction and glass panel thickness have a significant influence on the stress and deformation values; in contradistinction, modification in vertical direction and gas filling thickness do not noticeably impact stress-strain state of a plate. Default fixing step between two adjacent supports, which is often adopted by manufactures of IGUs without preliminary calculation for actual applied load, has to be verified in each case in terms of deformation in order to satisfy the conditions of SLS. The table of recommended values of maximum distance between supports is presented.