Mechanical behaviour of a rectangular glass panel in a fire

J. Glass Sci. Technol. A. The mechanical behaviour of a glass façade in a fire was studied experimentally in a full-scale burning facility. The temperature of hot air mixed with flame near the glass panes and the glass surface temperatures during the fire were measured. Heat transfer distributions on the heated glass pane surface were simplified from the experimental results. There is interest in studying the response to fire of glass systems. Glass panels are fixed to window frames with other materials such as steel, in close contact with the frame or with an air gap in between. During heating of such glass panes and solid boundaries by a fire, thermal expansion of the glass panel along the vertical direction of the glass pane edge would be restricted. Variations of thermal stresses on the glass panel due to non-uniform heating in a fire should be better understood. Hence, the positions and occurrences of the cracks can be predicted. To achieve that, stress, bending moment and displacement of a window glass panel exposed to fire under certain boundary conditions were studied in this paper. Based on the experimental results and solutions of thermal force equations, equations for non-uniform temperature distributions of the glass panel were derived. Bending moment, stress and displacement of the glass panel under two typical boundary conditions were calculated. The time and conditions for the occurrence of the first crack can be predicted.