Circumventing bifurcations in structural softening

Looking at glass from a different angle: New insights into fracture patterns through transmitted light microscopy

This paper shows the benefit of using transmitted light microscopy together with a Z-scanning software in fractographical analyses of glass. The strength of glass is largely dependent on processes that happen at the microscale. In this research, 52 plates were fractured in a biaxial tensile test. These were divided into five categories according...

Building and Testing Lenticular Truss Bridge with Glass-Bundle Diagonals and Cast Glass Connections

On the campus of Delft University the Glass and Transparency Research Group is preparing to build a pedestrian bridge as a low arch consisting of dry-stacked glass blocks. As temporary support for the arch, a lens-shaped truss has been constructed and placed on location. This truss has been fitted with as many glass components as was...

Prediction of Strength for Inhomogeneous: Defective Glass Elements Based on the Sequential Partitioning of the Data and Weibull Statistical Distribution

An analytical approach based on the on the sequential partitioning of the data and Weibull Statistical Distribution for inhomogeneous - defective materials is proposed. It allows assessing the guaranteed strength of glass structures for the low probability of fracture with a higher degree of reliability. Parameters of equations for the piecewise...

Editorial

Structural Glass is defined as an application of the material glass in a main bearing structure of for example a building or a bridge. Involvement started for the author in 1986, with designing and building of the Sonsbeek pavilion and continues, up to present, with the completion of the Taipei Performing Arts Centre expected in 2019. This...

Special issue Hebron

Structural Glass is defined as an application of the material glass in a main bearing structure of for example a building or a bridge. Involvement started for the author in 1986, with designing and building of the Sonsbeek pavilion and continues, up to present, with the completion of the Taipei Performing Arts Centre expected in 2019. This...

Editorial

In human history glass has been a key material. Obsidian, a naturally occurring volcanic glass, played a key role in the technology of many cultures. It is even argued by some historians that the easy availability of obsidian in Central America and the good properties of obsidian tools, made the Bronze Age unnecessary for the Mayans.

Reactivity of Fly Ash and Slag in Cement, Reactiviteit van poederkooivliegas en slak in cement

Fragile yet Ductile: Structural Aspects of Reinforced Glass Beams

This dissertation investigates the structural aspects of reinforced glass beams. The concept of these beams, which are intended for building applications, is to provide redundancy even if the glass is broken. This redundancy is obtained through a small reinforcement section that is bonded at the tensile edge of the glass beam. Upon glass failure...

Safety Concepts in Structural Glass Engineering: Towards an Integrated Approach

This dissertation proposes the Integrated Approach to Structural Glass Safety, based on four clearly defined element safety properties, damage sensitivity, relative resistance, redundancy, and fracture mode. The Element Safety Diagram (ESD) is introduced to provide an easy-to-read graphical representation of these properties. The safety...

The structural strength of glass: Hidden damage

We discuss “hidden damage” of glass by the rolling process, which results in heterogeneous distribution of microcracks on the edge surface of glass element, which are the fracture source deteriorating glass element strength. It is shown that removal of this damage on the edges of glass elements increases the engineering strength of float glass...

The strength of glass

For nearly a century architects have been dreaming of a material as strong as steel and as transparent as glass. We have now learned so much about glass that it is increasingly used as a sort of transparent concrete.

Quantitative Localization Microscopy: Effects of Photophysics and Labeling Stoichiometry

Quantification in localization microscopy with reversibly switchable fluorophores is severely hampered by the unknown number of switching cycles a fluorophore undergoes and the unknown stoichiometry of fluorophores on a marker such as an antibody. We overcome this problem by measuring the average number of localizations per fluorophore, or...

Microchips on glass

Microchips on glass. What about a mobile phone that uses a single microchip to receive all the available frequency bands, plus extras such as television, gps, and Internet access? Or, in due time, see-though implants that will monitor your state of health, and equipment that will let you see through fog. Researchers at Delft University of...

Elementary mechanisms governing the dynamics of silica

A full understanding of glasses requires an accurate atomistic picture of the complex activated processes that constitute the low-temperature dynamics of these materials. To this end, we generate over five thousand activated events in a model silica glass, using the activation–relaxation technique; these atomistic mechanisms are analyzed and...

Elastic Modulus and Hardness of Potassium Tantalum Germanate Glasses and Glass-Ceramics

Whilst the optical and structural properties of the glasses containing tantalum oxide have been considerably investigated, research into their mechanical properties is not substantially established. This work reports on the mechanical characterization of transparent germanate glass samples, obtained via the melt-quenching technique, with a molar...

New phosphate glasses containing industrial waste and their applications for building engineering

Despite a large number of products developed from waste materials, most of them consist of non-transparent applications, partly because it is a challenge to get transparent materials at reasonable temperatures from these waste products. In this work, we produced transparent glass samples incorporating slag and fly ash into a phosphate glass...