Mark's Structural Glass Home Page
| Contents of this page | The Structural
Glass project at The University of Oxford
aims to develop design methods for the use of glass as structural elements
in buildings. That means having beams and columns in structures being
made of glass. This may sound far fetched, but there have already
been structures built based on this concept. A London based engineering
company, Dewhurst Macfarlane, have been involved with a number of projects
based on the idea of structural glass. Follow the thumb nail links
below to see them.
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| Our Research | ||||
| People Involved at Oxford | ||||
| Industry Links | ||||
| Other Academic Institutions | ||||
| Glass Societies and Institutions | ||||
| Glass History and Myths |
In his book Glass in Architecture Michael Wigginton summarises the current problems involved with designing in glass.
"Glass structures are developing rather in the way that stone structures developed in the Middle Ages, by pragmatism and trial and error. Engineers, who invariably have to stand responsible for structural failure, have no real codes or structural data to design with, and are forced into accepting the recommendations of the glass-makers, or into a programme of testing which demonstrates that a proposal is sound. This usually means the construction of prototypes, the cost of which may deter an otherwise enthusiastic client."
It is the aim of the Oxford project to begin the development of the design codes mentioned above, so that elegant glass structures may become more common.
A description of one such elegant glass structure is given here. It discusses both the architectural and engineering aspects of the glass house. Photos are given here.
Our Research
There are two aspects to the research at Oxford. The first is an investigation of a rigorous design method for glass. This has seen the publication of a papers in The Structural Engineer and the Glass in Buildings conference in Baden Baden last year (download pdf file).
The second area of work deals with connection details in particular through contact and fracture mechanics methods. A paper has already been published on the Adhesive Contact between a Rigid Punch and a Half-Plane via a Thin, Soft Interlayer. Several others are currently under review.
People Involved at Oxford
The project is being conducted in the Civil Engineering Department at Oxford. I'm an Australian Ph.D student, and you can find my contact details here. If you want to find out more about me, Oxford or Australia you could try my Balliol College Home Page.
My supervisors are Prof. David Hills and Prof. Guy Houlsby. I have also collaborated with Peter Crompton who has completed an M.Sc in this area.
Industry Links
There is a significant amount of industry involvement in the project. The work at Oxford began with Dewhurst Mcfarlane approaching the Department about a glass structure they were working on. They have had a continued interest in the project, especially with Peter Crompton's work.
I am being partly sponsored by Pilkington, and without this funding I would not have been able to come to Oxford. Their role extends beyond financial support into valuable technical collaboration.
I have also established a link with British Glass, an organisation that promotes the British Glass Industry. I am being sponsored through The British Glass Education Trust Fund.
I would like to mention here the company that I worked for in Australia before coming to Oxford. Kinhill is one of Australia's largest engineering consultancies, and is generously providing me with some money for my time in England.
Other Academic Institutions
There is a limited amount of work being done on glass, and virtually nothing else on Structural Glass. Below are links to some Departments at universities other than Oxford which are working with glass.
In the UK:
Return to topAround the World:
- Centre for Glass Research at the University of Sheffield.
- Centre for Window and Cladding Technology at the University of Bath. Bath is hosting a seminar titled Glass in Buildings which may be of interest to people visiting this page.
- Advanced Glazing Industry Club (AGIC) at Oxford Brookes University.
- Glass Research and Testing Laboratory at Texas Tech University.
- Glas Tec at the University of Stuttgart.
- The Institute of Steel Construction at the Aachen University of Technology which is doing some work in glass, led by Prof Sedlacek.
- Building Envelope Research Laboratory at the University of Missouri-Rolla.
- Dr Behr at Pennsylvania State University working on the dynamics of glass cladding.
Glass Societies and Institutions
The Society of Glass Technology of which I am a member.
British Glass which is also partly sponsoring me.
National Glass Association (US)
Glass History and Myths
It
is a commonly held belief that glass is a liquid which flows very slowly
over time. This would explain why the bases of windows in old buildings
are thicker at the base than at the top. This idea is in fact false.
The distortion resulted from the method of manufacture of the glass.
The picture (left) shows how window glass was made prior to the development
of the modern float glass technique developed by Pilkington.
The glass maker would start with a lump of molten glass on the end of a
rod. The rod was then spun, so that the glass would spread out, like
a pizza dough being tossed in the air. Consequently the newly formed
pane of glass would vary in thickness depending on its distance from the
central rod. Hence, when a glass pane was cut it would not be equal
in thickness throughout. When it came to putting the pane in the
window frame the glaziers sensibly put the thicker part of the glass at
the base, not knowing that this would result in a commonly held misconception
hundreds of years later!
Glass has been
the feature of art throughout history. In recent times it made its
way into Peter
Carey's Oscar and Lucinda. The result is that many people
know of "Prince Rupert's
Drop", a small tear shaped piece of glass which is immensely tough
until you clip it, with pliers say. It then shatters into hundreds
of pieces. Prince Rupert's Drop is actually an example of toughened
glass, and the sudden complete shattering, rather than large cracking is
a well known property of this heat treated glass.
A concise history of glass is given in Stuttgart University's web site.
The Story of Glass describes how ancient glass was discovered, and then goes on to discuss Turkish glass. (This page may take some time to load.)
The history of glass can not be fully described without mention of Murano. This island in the Venetian lagoon was well known for its glass making ability, a skill it did not want to loose to competitors. In fact people were killed for trying to leave Murano with the knowledge of glass production.
All the flat glass in the world today, such as in car windows and building cladding, is produced using the float glass process, developed by Pilkington.
Date Created: 8/11/98
Last Updated: 6/6/01
email me: mark.porter@eng.ox.ac.uk