Study on use of glass in Sri Lankan construction industry

Abstract

This paper studies current practices of designing glass facades/ windows in Sri Lanka. Glass facades/ windows in Sri Lanka are currently designed by using the design standards developed for other countries or by using thumb rules. Since there are no any detailed investigations to see the accuracy of these thumb rules, the results given by thumb rules may be overdesigned or under-designed. In this research a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify different glass types and their usage, thumb rules, design standards and reasons for failures in glass structures. Experiments were done to ensure the strength of the glass and Aluminium available in Sri Lanka. A guideline was developed for four-point pin supported glass panels to determine the required glass thickness under the applied load. Those have been developed based on the comprehensive numerical analysis conducted using SAP2000 finite element software. This research will therefore enable the design engineers to select the required glass thickness by applying specific load cases for the safe and economical design of glazed facades/ windows to suit the local conditions.