Spontaneous Glass Breakage
Spontaneous Glass Breakage
Spontaneous Glass Breakage
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by Michael L. Rupert
The past few years have seen several highly publicized incidents involving window and balcony glass breaking spontaneously and falling from high-rise
buildings in Toronto, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Austin, Texas. While such episodes are rare, the danger they pose has forced building code writers,
architects, government officials, and related industry professionals to reconsider which types of glass should be specified for glass applications where
strength and protection of passers-by are paramount.
For architects and specifiers, it is important to have an overview on the potential causes of spontaneous glass breakage, including some common
misconceptions about its actual spontaneity. The term safety glazing generally refers to any type of glass engineered to reduce the potential for serious
injury when it comes into human contact. In addition to balcony glass, safety glazings are commonly required for:
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Thermal stress
Another potential cause of spontaneous glass breakage is thermal stress. Thermally induced stresses in glass are caused by a positive temperature
difference between the center and edge of the glass lite, meaning the former is hotter than the latter. The expansion of the heated glass center results in
tensile stress at the edge of the glass. If the thermally induced stress exceeds the edge strength of the glass, breakage occurs.
Accounting for thermal stress is especially critical today, as current design trends and the desire for daylighting are driving the industry toward the
specification of larger insulating glass units (IGUs) with high-performance solar control coatings. Large IGUs have inherently greater glass surface and
edge areas. When they are combined with coatings designed to manage the suns energy, more rigorous thermal stress analyses are required.
Nickel-sulfide inclusions
A far less commonbut often citedcause of spontaneous glass breakage is nickel-sulfide (NiS) inclusions in tempered glass. Small nickel-sulfide ston
can form randomly in the production of float glass. They are typically benign, even when occurring in tempered glass.
North American glass manufacturers do not use nickel in batch formulations for primary glass and go to great lengths to avoid nickel-bearing componen
in their glass-melting processes. Despite rigorous quality controls and procedures aimed at reducing the likelihood of nickel-sulfide stones, there is no
technology to completely eliminate their formation in todays float glass.
Nickel-sulfide stones are quite small and their
occurrence in the final glass product is covered
under ASTM C1036, Standard Specification for F
Glass, which permits blemishes (including nickelsulfide particles) of between 0.5 and 2.5 mm (1/50
1/10 in.) in float glass, depending on glass size an
quality.
during which they fully expand to their final size and remain stable thereafter.
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In the tempering process, this phase transformation is arrested during rapid quenching, which causes any nickel-sulfide particles present to remain
confined to their shrunken, pre-transformation states. Then, when the tempered glass is exposed to higher in-service temperatures caused by solar hea
gain or other high-temperature influences, nickel-sulfide particles have the potential to resume their volumetric growth. If the expansion is large
enoughand the particle is located in the center tension zone of the tempered glass panelthe resulting stress may be enough to shatter the glass.
Is heat-soaking a solution?
As indicated, nickel-sulfide particles are tiny, extremely rare, and only found randomly in float glass. This combination makes visual inspection for such
inclusions highly impractical, if not impossible. For that reason, some glass fabricators and glazing contractors offer heat-soaking of tempered glass as
potential solution for minimizing the risk of spontaneous glass breakage.
In this procedure, the glass supplier exposes a
entire lot or statistical sampling of tempered gla
panels to temperatures of 288 to 316 C (550 to
600 F) for two to four hours. The goal is to initia
or accelerate the phase change of any nickelsulfide inclusions that may be present and to
cause the glass to break before it is shipped to
end customer.
Risks of heat-soaking
There are risks associated with the heat-soak procedure that may outweigh any perceived benefits. For instance, small, stable inclusions could undergo
the beginning of a phase change during the heat-soak. While the phase change may not be sufficient to cause breakage during the procedure, the
transformation could potentially continue after the glass is installed, causing it to break in-service.
Re-exposing tempered glass to the increased temperatures of heat-soaking also has the potential to reduce its surface compression, which is the sourc
its strength. Ultimately, this may undermine the glasss ability to fulfill the safety or strength requirements for which it was intended.
Further, heat-soaking adds another layer of handling to the manufacturing process, which creates more opportunities for edge damage, scratches or co
changes to the low-e coating, and other imperfections that could have an impact on the tempered glass units long-term durability and performance.
Solutions for safety
In recent months, two organizations made ma
announcements prompted largely in response
the incidents of falling glass in Toronto, Chica
Las Vegas, and elsewhere. Both shared a
common assessmentnamely, that using
laminated tempered glass or heat-strengthene
glass is the most viable solution to making
balcony and other types of overhead glass sa
As these illustrations demonstrate, the heat-strengthened glass and tempered glass have distinctive
breakage patterns.
Similarly, in December 2012, the International Code Council (ICC) passed a code change proposed by the Glazing Industry Code Committee (GICC),
mandating use of laminated glass in handrail assemblies, guardrails, or guard sections. The newly approved code states laminated glass must be
constructed of either single fully tempered glass, laminated fully tempered glass, or laminated heat-strengthened glass, and comply with CPSC 16 CFR
Part 1201 or Class A of ANSI Z97.1.
Conclusion
Given the developments and recommendations
outlined in this article, it is clear a laminated glass
interlayer in combination with tempered or heatstrengthened glass may offer the optimal blend of
characteristics for applications where the risk of inj
from glass fallout is a primary concern. For non-saf
glass applications, where strength and resistance t
spontaneous breakage is desired, non-laminated
heat-strengthened glass should be considered due
its lower costs.
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This entry was posted in 08 00 00 Openings, 08 80 00 Glazing, B20Exterior Vertical Enclosures, B2020Exterior Windows, B2080Exterior Wall
Appurtenances, Features, MasterFormat, UniFormat and tagged 08 81 00?Glass Glazing, B2080.50?Exterior Balcony Walls and Railings, Balconies,
Breakage, Heat-soaking, Security glass, Tempered on December 17, 2013 [http://www.constructionspecifier.com/spontaneous-glass-breakage-why-i
happens-and-what-to-do-about-it/] .
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