Thermo-mechanical Numerical Modelling of Structural Glass under Fire - Preliminary Considerations and Comparisons

In this paper, careful consideration is paid for structural glass elements under fire loading. In particular, a thermo-mechanical Finite Element (FE) numerical investigation is carried out in ABAQUS on small-scale structural glass elements exposed to fire. Taking advantage of past literature efforts, major thermal effects on the material properties are taken into account in the form of key input parameters for numerical simulations. Further validation of the so calibrated FE models is then carried out towards past small-scale experimental fire tests on monolithic glass panels. A sensitivity FE study is hence proposed, giving evidence of major influencing parameters on the thermo-mechanical performance of the same structural glass elements, including variations in the fire exposure, thermal-to-mechanical loading ratio, geometrical and mechanical features of the specimens.