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Abstract
Structural glass facades, distinguished architectural features, are widely used in modern building construction. Understanding the strength of such point-supported glass plates is crucial in the design process. As an analogy to this problem, this research investigates the strength of glass plates subjected to out-of-plane bending and the effects of stress concentration around a hole. The strength of fully tempered 1/2 inch monolithic and fully tempered 1/4 inch -- PVB interlayer -- 1/4 inch laminated glass specimens was determined using a destructive method. Four different monolithic glass specimen types were utilized: those without a hole subjected to four-point bending, those with a hole subjected to four-point bending, those with a hole loaded via a standard swivel fitting ,three-point bending, and those with a hole with a chamfered edge subjected to four-point bending. This led to a deeper understanding of the behavior of glass plates near the fitting, and determined the influence of stress concentration on the overall strength of a glass plate. Ultimate stresses were obtained based on the stress concentration factor determined from the Finite Element Model, thick plate and thin plate analytical models, and readings from strain gauges applied to some of the specimens. The discoveries of this research demonstrate that the drilling method introduces a 3% reduction in the strength of a monolithic glass plate. If the load is applied through the fitting, the strength of a monolithic glass plate is reduced by an additional 13%. The breakthrough discovery made during this process is that chamfering the edge of a hole varies the peak breaking stresses, which results in 18% greater moment capacity.