Department of Engineering Level PGR Developing Monolithic FireResistant

Department of Engineering Level PGR Developing Monolithic Fire-Resistant Structural Curved Glass Research Student Marco Zaccaria Supervisor Dr. Mauro Overend Overview In the last century glass has increasingly been used as a façade material. Through the years designers endeavoured to increase the transparency of buildings which led to change the role of glass: from a simply supported pane to a primary structural element. Nowadays it is possible to produce glass suitable for structural applications through toughening and lamination processes. However, these processes present several challenges such as large manufacturing tolerances arising during the curving process which lead to increased as well as poor optical clarity. A possible way for overcoming such issues is to produce a monolithic sheet of glass which will exhibit fire-resistant as well as safe-breakage performance. Being monolithic it will be easier to curve and cheaper to produce. Outcomes & Impact This research project aims to develop such a glass by a new toughening process made by a combination of thermal and chemical toughening in order to combine the benefits of both. The glass produced will be called “bitoughened” glass and it will be fire-resistant as monolithic sheet, and it will fail safely. Its application will range from the marine industry to the construction industry. Work involved The project will be developed through three main stages: -Investigation of the surface features and surface stress of several types of glass, and destructive tests both at ambient and high temperature - Numerical models to predict the failure stress and the fragmentation under thermal load knowing the stress profile - Development of bi-toughened glass, characterization tests and process optimization of the product. Sponsors & Partners Trend Marine Ltd www. gft. eu. com