Glass structures – learning from experts

Despite the increasing research activity on structural use of glass in the past years, there is still a lack of comprehensive design codes and standards linked to real-life applications on a structural level. However, more and more ambitious buildings and structures are built every year. Thus the knowledge is out there. The aim of the presented project is to collect data on the existing design philosophy and glass failure cases. The investigation includes a survey about how practicing structural engineers deal with different design aspects of glass with a special focus on robustness and serviceability. The current document gives a brief overview about the findings of the interviews. USA (1). They have experience either mainly in facade engineering (5) or mainly structural glass (3) or both (6). The structural engineers we asked about their design philosophy use a variety of design codes, guidelines and other rules (e.g. ASTM E1300, prEN 13474, AS 1288, TRLV, TRAV, DIN 18008 etc.). However, a common opinion was that there is a lack of design aids, thus they have to use everything they could find. The interviews were analysed to find common patterns in the answers and also different opinions in the structural design philosophy of the answerers. Some of these findings will be presented and discussed in the following sections.