Curved glass structures

Felix Weber
Arup Materials Consulting, 13 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 4BQ, United Kingdom

Keywords
2=curved glass

Abstract
The use of single and double curved
glass becomes ever more popular in
architectural designs, therefore it is
worth understanding the modifications
of structural properties, their impact on
structural glass design and production
constraints in comparison with flat
glass. There are three ways of producing
curved glass: cold bending, roller
bending or moulding. Each of these
processes influences the mechanical
characteristics of the finished glass
product as well as determines the
maximum production dimensions,
the visual quality and the ability to be
further processed. Wrong processing or
manufacturing errors can very likely lead
to glass failure due to residual stress
conditions with tension on the glass
surface.
In general curved structures are
much more efficient than flat structures
due their ability to activate membrane
forces thus being much stiffer. Single
curvature can be used to generate arch
action or barrel vaults or to stabilise
panels against buckling; double
curvature to build domes, anticlastic
curved surfaces or free forms. Larger
glass structures have to be subdivided
and composed from a series of glass
panes. The position of the interface
joints not only influences the panel
sizes and possible repetitions of formats
but also the geometrical stability of
the structure and the forces to be
transferred at the panel edges and
hence the connection details. Different
approaches of recent curved glass
structures will be illustrated by case
studies of recent projects.

Introduction
Architectural designs of recent years
show an increasing use of more and
more complex and free forms and
base their architectural language on
curved surfaces. The use of 3d CAD
packages like Rhino, Maya or Catia
enables architects to explore and define
free forms relatively easily. These
surfaces are often visualised shown to
have transparent, semi transparent or
translucent appearances.
Glass offers the possibility to create
curved surfaces with a continuous range

3=architectural glass

4=visual quality

between transparency and opacity.

Typically, facetted flat glass is used to
realise glazed free forms with larger
radii in order to limit cost. However
this approach obviously varies from the
original design, revealed by the reflective
quality of glass, especially when seen
from the outside. Particularly on small
scale structures and geometries with
very tight radii the use of curved glass
panels is the only option to achieve the
architects design intent.
The realisation of curved glass
surfaces increases cost and design
effort. Whenever curved glass is
considered to be used on a project, the
client generally accepts that the building
costs would be higher in return for a
better aesthetic appearance.
Although curved glass panels are
much stiffer than flat glass panels they
are often applied as a cladding element
only. Using the structural benefit of
curved glass panes and thus minimising
the amount of visible structural
members can be highly beneficial in
order to increase transparency.
The design of complex glass
structures requires close collaboration
between the architect and the material
specialist at the onset of the project.
The form finding process has to go hand
in hand with structural optimisation
studies.
The glass specialists knowledge
about material properties, fabrication
processes and limitations is essential
in order to develop a feasible design.
Glass, when used as an enclosure,
is required to meet the thermal
performance requirements of the
mechanical engineer. Curved glass
is not a standardised product and
tolerances and material properties vary
compared to flat glass [BBI]. Hence
specifying curved glass to assure its
quality requires the designer to agree
quality parameters with the glass
processor. The challenge is to meet the
same performance criteria as for flat
glass.
This article aims to provide an
overview of production capabilities
and constraints, design parameters of
curved glass structures and examples of
projects where curved structural glass
was used.

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Production
Many processors have recently enlarged
their facilities for bent glass. There
are three ways of producing curved
glass: cold bending, roller bending or
moulding. Each of these processes
influences the mechanical characteristics
of the finished glass product as well as
determines the maximum production
dimensions, the visual quality and the
ability to be further processed (e.g.
laminating). Wrong processing or
manufacturing errors can very likely lead
to glass failure due to residual stress
conditions with tension on the glass
surface. These tension stresses lead
to sudden glass failures which can be
caused by even the smallest scratch in
the glass surface.
Cold bending is a process that
uses the linear elastic deformation
behaviour of glass. The glass panel is
forced into its shape and the geometry
is mechanically fixed. The bending
radii are limited to a curvature of up to
0.5 per meter depending on the glass
thickness. The thicker and stiffer the
glass sheet, the larger the minimum
bending radius as cold bending causes
rising permanent tensile stresses in
the glass. These stresses typically
account for up to 60% of the load
bearing capacity of the glass, therefore
tempered glass with high long term
strength is generally used.
Producing laminated curved panels
out of multiple thin layers of thermally
or chemically tempered glass sheets and
the possibility of introducing stepped
panel joints to create larger panels is an
interesting technique. These panels rely
hugely on the mechanical properties of
the interlayer material as the bending
stiffness is directly related to its shear
stiffness. This has to be taken into
account regarding high temperatures
in the panel caused by solar gain, as
some interlayer materials such as PVB or
SGP are losing their strength rapidly at
temperatures above 60.
Roller bent glass is processed on a
special tempering line. The hot glass
is bent on a set of adjustable rollers
after leaving the furnace and prior to
the glass being pre-stressed in a blow
process with cold air. The rollers are
adjusted to a concave shape whose axis
is orientated parallel or diagonally to
375

Building Projects - Case Studies

1=structural glass

Building Projects - Case Studies

the direction of the rollers. In order to

avoid residual stresses due to uneven
cooling, it is important that the glass is
constantly moving during the cooling
process as tension stresses in the surface
of the panel lead to sudden glass failure.
The panel sizes as well as the girth
and the bending radii are limited by
the machinery. Roller bent glass panes
will always end up heat tempered or
strengthened. Hence the panels should
be heat soak tested to minimise the
risk of a Nickel Sulphide failure on
the finished product. As known from
common heat tempered glass, rollerwaves and anisotropy can strongly
influence the visual quality of roller-bent
glass panels.
Moulded single curved glass is
produced by heating up the glass panel
on a specially designed mould, usually
built out of a series of steel tubes that
are covered with refractory fibres. The
mould may be concave or convex
and the bending direction influences
the tolerances of the panel. The glass
slumps under its own weight and as
such has the tendency to create flat
zones due to a changing ratio between
its stiffness and its weight. In concave
panels this zone can be observed in the
middle and at the ends with convex
panels. Higher temperatures and longer
cycles reduce this effect but introduce
the risk of imprints of the mould in the
glass. As the glass rests constantly on
the tubes it is not possible to pre-stress
the glass. In the annealing process the
glass has to be cooled down very slowly
to ensure that the tubes do not cause
local hot spots on the glass that
would lead to residual tension stresses
in the glass surface.
The standard method to produce
doubly curved architectural glazing is
by using a perimeter mould. Moulds
that are made out of an array of CNC
cut plates or full surface moulds are
very expensive due to the size and the
relatively small number of repetitions
of panels. Adjustable moulds are not
available yet [VOL].
Perimeter moulding uses a steel
frame that supports the edges of the
glass panel. The glass slumps into
its shape under its own dead weight
and is cooled down slowly in the
annealing process. The shape of the
glass is defined by controlling the
sagging of the glass via heating time
and temperature. When the surface of
the panel increases due to the change
of the geometry the glass thickness
decreases. This has to be taken into
account especially for tightly curved
panels. As the form is defined by the
catenary action of the soft glass, it is
difficult to control and will always vary
from the intended geometry. Mould
bent glass also shows the tendency to
stay flat in the centre of the panel and
does not bend as much as the areas
close to the perimeter. To avoid imprints
of the mould in the glass either the
bottom sheet is discharged or the panel

376

is produced oversized and the edges are

cut off after annealing.

Further processes
Chemical strengthening
Mould bent panels usually end up as
annealed glass and as such, have limited
resistance to bending stresses and
stresses caused by local temperature
changes. To increase its strength, the
panel can be chemically tempered after
moulding; however this process is very
expensive and restricts the glass panel
size. Further it is difficult to evaluate the
pre-stress conditions and the panels are
vulnerable against scratches.

Coatings and fritting

Body tinted glass, coatings, ceramic
frits or the use of printed or translucent
interlayers effects light radiation and
are thus used to change the visual
appearance of the glass and to reduce
solar gain. Especially coatings and frits
can conflict with bending processes.
Establishing the procurement route
it has to be considered that different
processes like coating, printing the frit
and bending might be carried out by
different processors.
The range of bendable coatings or
those that can be applied on bent panes
is limited. Coatings are typically applied
on flat glass sheets, whilst pyrolytic hard
coatings are applied online on the hot
glass in the float process, soft coatings
are applied offline on cold glass sheets
by the use of magnetron sputtering.
All coatings can be cold formed with
the glass, but only hard coatings and
some soft coatings survive thermal
bending processes. Hard coatings are
usually more robust and can be hot bent
to tight bending radii, some can even sit
on the rollers of a toughening line and
allow both concave and convex panel
shapes. More and more soft coatings
that are available on the market can
also be hot bent to a certain extent. As
the availability of bendable coatings
varies depending on the experience of
the bending processor it is important to
discuss the performance requirements
of the glazing and available coatings in
an early stage of the project.
A coating can also be applied after
the bending process using a fogging
chamber, but with this technique the
application of selective coatings is
limited. This may cause conflicts if the
architect asks for high transparency.
Fritting uses a ceramic ink that is
printed onto the glass surface, dried
and melts onto the glass surface
during the firing process. A ceramic
frit can generally be fired during any
bending process. The frit should not
get in contact with either the rollers or
the mould and thus has to sit on the
concave side of the glass panel when
bent. This has to be taken into account
when a frit is to be applied on a series
of convex and concave glass panels.

Laminating
Due to the production tolerances of
curved glass, interlayer materials should
have a thickness equal to or more than
1.52mm. The availability of different
interlayer materials for different panel
shapes should be discussed in the
design phase as with an increasing
grade of single or double curvature the
number of available interlayer materials
may be limited. Products that are
provided as a stiff sheet such as Sentry
Glass can only be bent to a certain
extent. Foils like PVB are soft enough to
be stretched and thus are better able to
follow the shape of curved glass panels.
Liquid interlayer materials such as
polyurethane offer maximum freedom.
Panels that are mould bent should
be moulded when resting on each other
in order to reduce tolerances. A talcum
powder between the panels prevents
the panels from baking together
during the firing process. It has to
be ensured that symmetrical panels
are laminated the same way they are
moulded. Uneven panel shapes are
usually accommodated using increased
interlayer thicknesses.
Lamination allows stepped laminated
glass panels to increase the panel size.
This reduces the number of visible glass
joints and leads to a more transparent
glass structure.

Double glazed units:

The market provides special spacer
products for curved units. Current
double glazing machinery is not
designed to process curved panels. For
this reason the production of curved
double glazed units is more manual.
The stiffness of curved glass panels
limits their ability to pillow under
gas pressure changes, caused by
temperature changes for example.
Hence it is very important to analyse the
stresses present in the panels and in the
spacer to design for climatic load cases
[SMI].
A strategy to avoid climatic loads is to
pressure equalise the panels. The panels
breathe through a desiccant tank that
dries the outside air that is absorbed
into the panel and is recharged when
dry hot air is driven out. However this
idea is relatively new and there is limited
experience. The desiccant tank needs to
be accessible for regular inspection and
replacement.

Structural design
Float glass by nature is a flat product
with a limited thickness and does not
lend itself to take high tension stresses
on the surface. The structural use of
glass is determined by its limited ability
to take bending forces and its limited
bending stiffness. Glass structures are
traditionally designed in a way that
bending moments are minimised or
divided into compression and tension
forces. This is achieved by using either
hierarchical structures with glass beams

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Single curved structures:

Single curved glass can be used for the
design of arc, barrel vault or curved wall
structures. The shape of composed
arcs can be designed to follow a thrust
line. This enables the structure to
transfer long term loads like its own
weight purely by axial membrane
forces and minimises constant bending
moments in the glass panels. Single
curved glass is available as tempered or
heat strengthened. This is beneficial
as structures with a single curvature
cannot activate membrane forces if
loaded unevenly to their shape. The
generally poorer visual appearance of
the heat tempered glass product has to
be accepted.
Arch-structures span diagonal to
the bending axis. As curved panels can
approximate a catenarys shape, there
are less bending moments in the glass
as symmetric loads can be taken via
compression forces. Keeping the glass
free of bending moments for long term
loads such as dead load or symmetric
snow loads is beneficial regarding the
forces in the interlayer. Asymmetric
loads still have to be taken via bending.
Barrel vaults are curved with the
bending direction parallel to the span
direction. The curvature of the glass
panel increases the structural height
and allows the vault to span like a linear
beam.
Curved glass walls can take bending
moments but also take compression
forces parallel to the bending axis due
to their increased buckling resistance
compared to flat glass panels.

Double curved structures:

Double curved glass panels have either
synclastic or anticlastic curvature

and hence can be used to create self

supporting dome or saddle formed
structures. Theoretically these forms
have the best structural performance
as they enable the structure to bare
distributed loads purely by means
of axial stress. It is important that
the connectors ensure the structural
continuity of the shell. Axial stresses
may be compression or tension forces
depending on the shape and the baring
of the structure as well as different
load cases. Glass is relatively weak in
resisting tension stresses and these are
also difficult to transfer into the fixings.
Therefore the shape of the structure
should be designed to avoid or minimise
tension forces. Double curved structures
are relatively weak against point loads
as these cause localised bending and
double curved architectural glass is
typically annealed.

Joining techniques
One can generally see a trend away
from traditional joining techniques
using visible and often aesthetically
dominating steel elements to the use of
invisible joining techniques such as
interlocks or bonded connectors. These
allow applying the transferred forces
into the glass more evenly and as such
reducing the stresses in the glass. The
joint design for curved glass panels is
more complex than for plane panels.
The connectors have to accommodate
the curvature and higher manufacturing
tolerances, applying less restraint forces.
As curved structures behave as a whole,
the joints have to create continuity for
the forces and guarantee alternative
load routes in case of a panel breakage
or replacement.
Mechanical fixings transfer forces to
the glass by compression on the glass
edge or surface. Interlayer materials
improve even distribution of the load
and limit stresses in the glass.
Clamping connections hold the
glass for in-plane compression and out
of plane forces in a very simple way.
Clamps apply permanent compression
forces on the glass surface to generate
friction. This is impossible with
laminated glass panels as interlayer
materials creep when permanently in
compression.
Bolts are one of the traditional
glass connectors and widely used in
structural glass applications. Since
bolts lead to local peaks of stresses in
the glass they counteract its material
properties and as such are often the
driver for glass thickness and structural
depth of the glass structure.
Mechanical interlocks use
geometrical pockets or machined glass
edges in order to transfer forces only by
compression.
Structural adhesives, soft or rigid,
allow transferring compression, shear
and tension forces to the glass. The
perfect form closure distributes the load
evenly and limits stresses in the glass.

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Structural silicone is widely used and

generally a good method to bond glass
to glass or glass to steel, aluminium
or titanium members. However it is
relatively soft and higher forces have to
be transferred with increasing bonding
areas. Its black colour and the wide
joints with an often poor finish quality
may cause a conflict with the architects
intent. On site application of structural
silicone is common practice but the
application conditions are difficult to
control.
Epoxy or acrylic resins are
considerably stiffer and stronger than
silicone and as such are able to take
higher forces. Clear products offer high
visual quality. The chosen adhesive
has to fulfil not only strength and
durability, but also UV and moisture
resistance, visual quality and application
requirements. More than for silicone
the performance of these structural
bonds is to a large extent dependent on
the application and curing conditions
and as such the application needs
controlled environmental conditions that
are difficult to achieve on site.
Pre bonded metal connectors allow
using the benefit of a structural bond to
the glass and having a relatively simple
metal to metal connection on site. The
connector can be laminated within the
panels or bonded to the glass edge or
surface.
The adhesive transfers the forces
and accommodates tolerances between
the connector and the glass. For large
connectors e.g. along glass edges the
different thermal expansion coefficients
of glass, steel and aluminium have to be
taken into account. The risk of thermal
stresses can be reduced by using
titanium members.
Using materials like glass fibre
reinforced polymers offers the
opportunity of having the same thermal
expansion in the connector and the
glass and such reducing internal stresses
in the structure.

Case Studies
Small scaled structures use one panel of
glass in span direction, several of these
can be arranged to rows or groups.
The glass panels have to be connected
to the adjacent structure but do not
require glass to glass connectors.

Entrance Pavilion St. Martins in the

Fields
Eric Parry Architects, London
The new entrance pavilion to the
catacombs is part of the remarkable
renewal of St Martin in the Fields, on
Trafalgar Square in central London. The
pavilion hosts a lift and a staircase and
features a cylindrical curved glass wall
that supports the curved stainless steel
roof with a weight of ca. 10tons. The
overall dimensions of the pavilion are
ca. 7m x 10m in plan with a height of
6.50m. Eight curved glass panels with
a height of ca. 4590mm and a width
377

Building Projects - Case Studies

or fins, or alternatively trussed or trussed

plate structures [WUR]. This approach
provides more structural height by
adding additional members and as such
reduces the stresses in the glass.
Curved glass structures however
offer the possibility of using the three
dimensional shape of the panel to
either stiffen the glass by increasing the
structural height or creating a global
shape that allows activating membrane
forces in the structure.
Todays glass structures are generally
built out of laminated glass panels due
to safety reasons. Consequently it is
beneficial to create a global geometry
that minimises long term bending
moments in the glass. This avoids
weakening effects due to creeping of
the interlayer. However for short term
loads the interlayer provides enough
stiffness to allow for reasonable bending
moments in the panels.
As the production processes limit
the available glass sizes and shapes, an
investigation of procurement routes
should go hand in hand with the
design of the structure. Pushing the
boundaries might result in having only
one processor available.

Fig 01

Building Projects - Case Studies

Entrance Pavilion St.

Martins in the Fields

of 2200mm describe the outline of two

overlapping circles in plan, each circle
having a radius of ca. 3600mm.
The glass is a triple laminate of
2x12mm+10mm mould bent low iron
glass. Each panel has a weight of 860kg.
A hard coating on the inner 10mm pane
reduces solar gains and contributes
to a volumetric manifestation of the
glazed pavilion. For aesthetic reasons,
mould bent annealed glass is used as it
avoids polarisation and lens effects due
to anisotropy and roller waves. Also, a
panel breakage, as caused by vandalism,
will not lead to the disturbing
appearance of a small fracture pattern
as seen with tempered glass.
The stone clad concrete base of the
pavilion supports the bottom stainless
steel ring beam. A glazing pocket is
made of a T-section that is fixed to the
concrete base and after glass installation
closed with a flat steel that is fixed
via bolt connections. The stainless
steel roof structure provides a similar
clamping at the top, fixed to the ring
beam. Structural continuity is achieved
by structural silicone in the bottom
and vertical panel joints. Nevertheless
the square stainless steel tubes in the
vertical glass joints are fixed to the
base and roof and ensure that the glass
panels are not tipping without relying
on the silicone. The end connections
are designed to limit stresses occurring
due to different thermal expansion of
the steel and the glass members.
The curvature of the panels provides
stiffness against buckling and increases
the structural depth of the glass for
horizontal loads. The structure provides
enough redundancy to withstand the
loss of two panels.

Serpentine Pavilion 2009:

SANAA
The Serpentine Pavilion 2009 features
a free form roof designed of aluminium
composite panels supported by steel
columns. Free standing curved glass
panels define and shade certain zones
from wind.
Single curved glass panes are bottom
supported and free at their top edge to
378

Fig 02
Exploded isometric view of the Entrance Pavilion
St. Martins in the Fields (Eric Parry Architects)
Fig 03
Aerial view of the Serpentine Pavilion 2009 (T.
Clark, Arup)

allow for a free floating shape of the

roof.
The architect asks for the highest
possible transparency in order to
dematerialise the glass walls, however
there will be some kind of manifestation
required to avoid people walking into
the glass panels.
The panels will be either made of
12mm thick tempered, low-iron glass
or 25mm thick acrylic leafs. They have
a girth of 2000mm and a height of
2100mm to 2500mm with changing
radii in plan. As the vertical panel joints
are open each panel is self supporting
regarding occurring lateral loads.
A maximum radius for the panels
was defined to guarantee that they have
enough bending stiffness to withstand
lateral loads and to insure that they do
not respond to excitation that may be
applied by hand.
A symmetrical load case with 100%
wind load and an asymmetrical load
case with 70% and 30% wind load
on each half was analysed, the latter
taking into account gust and shadowing
effects. The natural frequency was
defined to be higher than 5Hz.

Larger glass structures are more

complicated in their design and
engineering as the size limit of the
glass leads to split joints and as such
structural glass to glass connections
have to be introduced.

Glass Dome for a Hotel in London

Eric Parry Architects, London
The structural glass dome was designed
as part of a roof extension for a five star
hotel in London. It spans approximately
13m across and encloses the relaxation
area of a spa that is internally linked to
the treatment rooms underneath. The
outline of the dome follows a U-shape
on plan, which is stepped back at its
end. In cross section the glass surface
follows a five-centred symmetric arch
that approximates a parabola.
The glass dome is in principle
composed of three zones:
A single curved zone with an
approximate parabolic cross section
(the glass vault), ca. 15 m long
A double-curved zone at one end,
semi-circular on plan, with the same
parabolic cross section as the vault.

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Fig 04
Cross section through
the dome showing the
five-centred arch and the
view angles without visible structural members
(F. Weber, Arup)

Building Projects - Case Studies

A single curved zone at the back

end of the dome (where a pair of
treatment rooms is located) merging
into the metal roof creating an
inclined curved intersection line (the
transition zone)
There were two main drivers for the
design of the glass roof of the Spa. The
first was to create a continuous and
smooth glass bubble appearing like a
clear liquid droplet when seen from
the outside or the inside (the single
curved and the double curved zones
should read as one form). The second
was to keep the bottom row of glass
panels free of structural elements so
the panoramic view out would not be
compromised. Hence the task for the
design team was to use the maximum
available glass sizes to minimise joints,
to optimise the shape in order to reduce
forces in the structure, to limit the
amount of visible steel elements, and to
develop a discrete design language for
these.
The parabola shape in cross section
was developed in order to keep the
single curved elements free from
bending moments under dead load.
Its rise was defined by the maximum
overall building height allowed by
Planning permission. Computer models
in Rhino were used to investigate
different geometry options e.g. the use
of single curved panels in the nose
that create a facetted design in plan.
Facetting studies went hand in hand
with research on maximum production
sizes for single and double curved
laminated and insulated glass units.
Again, several options were studied
regarding the width of glass panes, the
number of panels and the structural
system.
The final solution uses five glass
panels to span across, whereas three
glass panels define the top zone that
is supported by two glass panels in the
bottom zone. In the nose a steel ring
holds a semi-circular top pane where
the doubly curved panels converge.
The structure of the vault acts as a
four pinned arc. Stainless steel fins in
cross direction follow the glass joints
and structurally connect the three top
panes. These flying ribs do not touch
the ground and keep the lower area
of the dome free from visual structural
elements. The four pin arch structure is
a mechanism that needs to be laterally
restrained. This was achieved by
creating a stiff trussed plate in the top
zone by introducing tension rods in the
four longitudinal glass joints of the top
zone and activating the glass panels
to take shear forces. The roof plate is
fixed back to the main structure and the
doubly curved nose.
In the nose, radial ribs are
interconnected by the semi-circular
beam around the top glass panel. This
creates a stiff extension of the plate and
allows the transfer of shear forces into
the bottom panes.
A continuous steal ring beam,
U-shaped in plan, provides the base

Fig 05
Perspective view with
structural members (F.
Weber, Arup)

Fig 06
Sketch showing the panel
connection detail for the
rib (J. Wurm, Arup)

support for the dome. The ring beam

is supported by the steel structure of
the 10th floor extension. It is situated
in the parapet zone which was strictly
limited in size to allow the view to the
surrounding landscape. The parapet
further hosts pipes from the airconditioning system.
Interface details were designed to
achieve a maximum degree of pre-

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fabrication and minimise installation

effort on site. This was particularly
important due to the fact that the site
on the 11th floor had limited access,
material transport and availability of
lifting devices during installation.
A continuous pocket hosts the
bottom edge of the bottom glass
panels. Specially shaped shoes made of
high strength engineering plastic allow
379

Building Projects - Case Studies

the panels to rotate within the pockets.

The glass to glass and glass to steel fin
connections are using factory bonded
connectors at the top and bottom
glass edges. The connectors allow to
introduce longitudinal, cross directional
and diagonal forces into the glass
panels, further provide the longitudinal
tension members and are bolt fixed to
the steel ribs on site.
The main structure was developed
and analysed using a complex global 3d
model with beam and plate elements
in the software package GSA. Beam
and plate elements were connected via
spring elements to control the force
transfer between the steel elements
and the glass panels. Connection
details were analysed in detail using
the FEM-software Strand 7, applying
the connection forces from the global
model. Spring elements were also
used to simulate the stiffness of the
support structure underneath the ring
beam and constantly updated with
spring stiffnesses provided by AKT, the
engineer for the main structure.
The design of the highly transparent
structure uses the largest curved glass
sizes that could be sourced, fulfilling the
requirement of transparency and high
thermal performance. The structure
takes symmetric loads like dead load
and snow without showing large forces
or deflections. Wind and asymmetric
snow loads lead to a slight rotation of
the roof plate that can be controlled by
its in-plane stiffness.

Summary
The reviewed projects demonstrate there
is a market for curved glass structures.
Due to the cost implementation these
will always be regarded as high quality
products with a high expectation on the
clients side.
The high visual quality asks for
efficient form finding and minimised
connection details.
The projects further show there is a
tendency towards high quality curved
glass minimizing the amount of tint
and anisotropy as well as a maximum

380

Fig 07
Calculation results from
the structural analysis
model (M. Budea, Arup)

flushness of the surface. This calls for

large curved laminated glass panels
made of low iron glass and high
performance coatings for bent glass.
The mechanical properties and
fracture patterns of curved glass differ
from those of flat glass [BBI]. The
importance of mechanical properties,
production tolerances, performance
requirements and visual quality prove
the need for product and quality control
standards for curved glass.
In the absence of production and
fabrication standards it is important
to define heat treatment conditions,
material strength, allowable tolerances
regarding the panel geometry and
visual acceptance criteria in the glass
specification. The specification should
not only ask for visual inspections of
the glass panels but also for mechanical
tests. Local stress measurements
using e.g. a LaserGASP or a SCALP in
combination with polarisation filter
images of the panels can be used to
prove compliance.

References
[BBI] Bucak, Bues, Illguth ,Feldmann ,Kasper:
Tragverhalten von gebogenen Glsern im
Bauwesen, Tagungsband Glas im konstruktiven
Ingenieurbau 7, FH Mnchen, 19./20, Mrz
2009
[SMI] Smith, Antony: Atmospheric Loads and the
Design of Curved Insulating Glass Units, Glass
Processing Days 2001
[VOL] Vollmers, K.J. and Riedbergen, D: Adjustable
mould for annealing freely curved glass panes,
Glass Processing Days 2007
[WUR] Wurm, Jan: Glass Structures, Design
and construction of self-supporting skins,
Birkhaeuser 2007

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