Structural glass - Review of design philosophies & analysis methods

Structural glass is a contemporary structural material for which research and development coincides with day-to-day design practice. Development in glass engineering is driven by increasing demands from architects and clients alike. The design of reliable glass structures is challenging as many projects are on the limit of the acceptance or beyond the scope of current codes of practice for structural glass. This paper summarizes design philosophies available to practicing engineers, designing with structural glass. Well-established design philosophies are explained and their implementation in the current codes of practice is described. Fundamental concepts are introduced and computational simulation methods are discussed in detail, using simple examples from day to day practice for deterministic and probabilistic methods. The probabilistic method is reviewed in detail and basic input variables are specified. Output parameters, as well as various post processing techniques, are presented. At the end of the paper, a brief summary outlines further research key points and practical recommendations to practicing design engineers.