Glass Structures & Engineering - Webinar
We hosted 4 webinars. Please watch the recording of our first webinar here (this opens in a new tab):
About the speakers:
Steffen Feirabend studied structural engineering at the University of Stuttgart and the University of Calgary. In March 2000 he began his professional career as a structural engineer with Werner Sobek. Later he also started his research activity with Werner Sobek at the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) where he prepared his PhD thesis about the post-breakage behavior of laminated glass. He also worked as head of the steel/glass at seele GmbH on complex building envelopes combining design and construction.
His focus is on the design, analysis, modeling and construction of complex spatial structures and building envelopes as well as the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) over the buildings lifetime to create a sustainable future.
He worked worldwide on projects e.g. the museum “The Broad” in Los Angeles (USA), the “EXPO2017” (Kazakhstan) and the railway station “Stuttgart21” as well as airports, high rises and stadiums.
Steffen Dix started his career with an apprenticeship as a technical draftsman at seele GmbH and then studied civil engineering with focus on steel, lightweight and glass construction at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich. (During this time, he spent six months in New York, where he worked as an assistant site manager on the construction of the Apple Stores at 5th Avenue and Grand Central Station.)
Since the beginning of his studies he worked in the laboratory for steel and light metal construction (LSL). First as a working student, under Ömer Bucak, until today as a Research Assistant under Christian Schuler. Since 2016, his research focus is on quality control of tempered glass, which has resulted in his currently ongoing PhD project "Methods for the evaluation of optical anisotropy effects in tempered glass".
He is currently pursuing his PhD via a cooperative doctorate at the Institute for Mechanics and Materials in Gießen under Stefan Kolling.
Summary of Content:
“The Messeturm - Trade Fair Tower – in Frankfurt”, by S. Feirabend
The talk will be based on the recently published article:
Feirabend, S., Starz, F., Bechmann, R. et al. Repositioning Messeturm–Maximum Transparency. Glass Struct Eng (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-020-00140-8
Which can be found here: https://rdcu.be/ch9ie (this opens in a new tab)
Abstract:
The Messeturm (“Trade Fair Tower”) in Frankfurt is currently adjusted to the requirements of a modern office building. The lobby area has been enlarged by a highly transparent façade consisting of oversized insulating glass (IG) units. The IG units are curved and have a size of up to 17 m × 2.8 m. To obtain a perfectly curved façade, the IG units were fabricated with laminated cold-bended glass panes. Horizontally the IG units are supported by tapered stainless steel fins. Inclined steel beams connect the top of the façade fins with the tower structure creating a rounded roof. The vertical façade with its glass roof allows maximum transparency for people inside the lobby as well as for people passing by outside to the nearby trade fair grounds. The glass was fabricated by sedak. The façade was installed by seele on behalf of the owner OFFICEFIRST, the asset-management of Blackstone.
“Digital Evaluation of Optical Anisotropy in Tempered Glass”, by S. Dix.
The talk will be based on the recently published article:
Dix, S., Müller, P., Schuler, C. et al. Digital image processing methods for the evaluation of optical anisotropy effects in tempered architectural glass using photoelastic measurements. Glass Struct Eng 6, 3–19 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40940-020-00145-3
Which can be found here: https://rdcu.be/ch9i5 (this opens in a new tab)
Abstract:
Optical anisotropy effects in architectural glass can be evaluated using digital image processing. Hereby, thermally toughened glass panes were analyzed quantitatively using a circular polariscope. Glass subjected to externally applied stresses or residual stresses becomes birefringent. Polarized light on birefringent materials causes interference colors (iridescence), referred to as anisotropies, which affect the optical appearance of glass panes in building envelopes. Thermally toughened glass, such as toughened safety glass or heat strengthened glass, show these iridescences due to thermally induced residual stress differences. RGB-photoelastic full-field methods allow the quantitative measurement of anisotropies, since the occurring interference colors are related to the measured retardation values. By calibrating the circular polariscope, retardation images of thermally toughened glass panes are generated from non-directional isochromatic images using computer algorithms. The analysis of the retardation images and the evaluation of the anisotropy quality of the glass is of great interest in order to detect and sort out very low quality glass panes directly in the production process. Therefore, retardation images are acquired from different thermally toughened glass panes then different image processing methods are presented and applied. It is shown that a general definition of exclusion zones, e.g. near edges is required prior to the evaluation. In parallel, the limitations in the application of first-order statistical and threshold methods are presented. The intend of the investigation is the extension of the texture analysis based on the generation of Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrices, where the spatial arrangement of the retardation values is considered in the evaluation. For the first time, the results of textural features of different glass pane formats could be compared using reference areas and geometry factors. By reduction of the original image size, the computation time of textural analysis algorithms could be remarkably speeded up, while the textural features remained the same. Finally, the knowledge gained from these investigations is used to determine uniform texture features, which also includes the pattern of anisotropy effects in the evaluation of thermally toughened glass. Together with a global evaluation criterion this can now be implemented in commercial anisotropy measurement systems for quality control of tempered architectural glass.
Please watch our second free webinar here (this opens in a new tab):
Papers discussed:
Graham Coult: The Skypool – bringing architectural imagination to life (this opens in a new tab)
About the speakers:
Graham Coult joined Eckersley O’Callaghan in 2004 as its first team member when the company was established. Graham has over 20 years of professional experience and his technical expertise in pioneering glass engineering and novel materials and material use have been instrumental in delivering the practice’s many challenging and award-winning glass projects. As Technical Director, Graham has been responsible for the strategic operations across the company. This includes defining design processes and project delivery for project excellence. He also leads our Research and Development programme driven by a pursuit to explore the innovative use of material in design.
Marcel Berlinger studied mechanical engineering at Technische
Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) – University of Applied Sciences, and completed his Master’s degree in 2017. He became research assistant and doctoral student in the Team of Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Stefan Kolling at the Institute of Mechanics and Materials at THM. There, he specialized in the mechanical characterization of polymers and in statistical failure analyses, working on the development of a stochastic failure model for numerical simulation of PMMA materials in automotive application. His research is supported by Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jens Schneider (TU Darmstadt). In this synergy, a groundwork is developed, providing the uninitiated user with all necessary information for a risk-based design of structures.
In May 2021, Marcel became the first graduate of the Graduate Centre for Engineering Sciences at the Research Campus of Central Hesse, in a cooperation between Justus-Liebig-University Giessen and THM. His thesis is available online and titled “A Methodology to Model the Statistical Fracture Behavior of Acrylic Glasses for Stochastic Simulation”.
Please watch the recording of our third free webinar here (this opens in a new tab):
Papers discussed:
About the speakers:
Socrates Angelides studied Civil Engineering at Imperial College London and worked for 3 years at DNVGL as a Structural Engineer in the Oil and Gas industry designing offshore structures. In 2016 he joined the Future Infrastructure and Built Environment Centre for Doctoral Training of the University of Cambridge and is currently researching the blast response of laminated glass panels, under the supervision of Dr Talbot and collaborating with Prof. Overend. His research aims at developing analytical models to support the design of these panels and reduce the need for expensive blast testing, with a focus on understanding the residual resistance following the fracture of the glass layers. Most recently Socrates has joined Prof. Overend’s Structural Design & Mechanics research group at TU Delft as a visiting researcher.
Giovanni De Mari studied structural engineering at “Università della Calabria”, where he completed his Bachelor’s degree, and at “Politecnico di Milano”, where he completed his Master’s degree. He joined the Advanced Engineering, Materials & Technologies group at Eckersley O’Callaghan in 2016. Since then, he has been involved in a large number of international projects in different sectors, featuring the combined use of glass and steel, with particular focus on detailing and innovation. Other than structural glass design, his technical expertise includes complex geometry design, detailed finite element analysis and engineering solutions of seismic scenarios.
Please watch the recording of our fourth free webinar here. (this opens in a new tab)
Papers discussed:
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About the speakers:
Gregorio Mariggiò graduated in Civil Engineering at Politecnico di Torino, where he joined the Glass Structures & Advanced Materials modelling group in 2018, first as Research Assistant and then as PhD candidate within the program in Civil and Environmental Engineering.
His scientific activity covers different research areas: structural glass, computational mechanics and applied mathematics, as well as fracture mechanics.
The main scientific results concern the development of an innovative functional coating capable of improving the mechanical performance of glass; the development of a probabilistic FEM approach for structural integrity assessment of glass components; and the development of strategies to address the important challenge of integrating discontinuous functions, a long-standing problem in the eXtended Finite Element Method.
Arnau Bover studied Industrial Engineering at Universitat de Girona, where he completed his BEng and MEng in Industrial Engineering. He joined Bellapart Group as structural engineer in October 2017. Since then, he has been involved in a large number of projects around the world with a specialization in design and simulation of steel and glass envelopes and singular structures. He worked on projects such as Hotel Ritz, Palacio de los Condes de Villagonzalo in Madrid, and Waterloo Station in London. His technical expertise includes the development of complex numerical simulations, both global models and 3D detail models in finite element analysis.
His 3 months’ secondment at Arup in 2019 allowed him to understand the project form the consultant side, adding to the experience of the final stages of a project (execution and
construction) obtained at Bellapart, also the initial stages (project design and conception).