Glass Breakage Tests under Fluctuating Wind Loads

The current North American design codes for wind loads have dealt with the unique characteristics of glass using the observed failure mechanism of static fatigue, which is based on the concept of damage accumulation as described by Brown's integral. However, both the load resistance and the design loads have aspects that have not been fully validated because of available but limited experimental results, particularly with regard to fluctuating load patterns. With the recent development of a sophisticated pressure-loading device, precise, time-varying wind loads as well as conventional ramp loading were applied to annealed glass plates in this study. The measured results were consistent with Brown's integral, confirming the conversion method from realistic wind-load time histories to equivalent static loads. (C) 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.