Assessment on flexural performance of monolithic glass considering spatial and depth characteristics of scratches

Glass products are widely used in building envelopes. Fracture can be triggered accidentally from the glass surface damage such as scratch. This study proposed an approach to assess the flexural performance of the aged monolithic glass panel, which has scratch with spatial and depth information detected via non-contact sensing. The coaxial double ring (CDR) test was conducted for experimentally evaluating the flexural strength on a total number of 160 scratched annealed (AN) and fully tempered (FT) glass specimens. Finite element (FE) analysis was performed to find the exact stress state by considering the geometric non-linear behaviour of glass panel under large deflection. Test and numerical results demonstrate that the scratch depth characterized by a confocal microscope and spatial location can both influence the failure load of FT glass, whereas AN glass is only sensitive to the latter. With combining linear elastic fracture mechanics (LEFM) theory, the relationship between the scratch depth and the residual strength of FT glass can be accurately determined. The spatial and depth characteristics of scratch can then be integrated for the failure load assessment of monolithic FT glass panel. The assessment framework can contribute to the accurate non-destructive assessment on aged architectural glass.