Finding the strength of glass: A mechanical and fractographic research of glass' biaxial strength for structural purposes

Over the years, glass has been increasingly used as a structural building material. Structural calculations on glass are conservative because the strength is quite uncertain. Weibull plots of the strength of glass can range from 20 MPa to 150 MPa. This is caused by flaws, which are not visibile to the human eye and therefore it is difficult to...

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...