PSI - Issue 42

7

Author name / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

Erik Calvo-García et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 42 (2022) 251–258

257

a)

b)

Figure 7 – Cumulative failure probability plot for annealed glass (left curve) and heat strengthened glass (right curve): a) reference plates before laser blasting; b) specimens after laser blasting. The characteristic strength is decreased, although the 5% expected strength is preserved.

4. Conclusions From the findings reported in this work in can be concluded that the laser blasting treatment can lead to surface modification to increase the slip resistance of upper surface of glass load-bearing elements, with preservation of a very significative part of the structural performance. In has been evidenced the importance of the elimination of crack nucleation sites due to conventional glass cutting in order to identify the laser blasting impact on the flexural strength by four-point bending tests. The presence of unbeveled edges leads to early failure, with 5% expected bending strength and characteristic bending strength independent on the laser processing. In the absence of sharp edges, the observed bending strength distribution for annealed and heat-strengthened glasses are comparable to that reported by coaxial double ring tests. By analyzing the effect of the laser blasting treatment on the glass mechanical behavior it is concluded that the fracture patterns of reference glasses and laser blasted glasses are equivalent. In addition, the fracture toughness at local level is preserved after laser blasting, while a lower sensitivity and large processing window is shown by the heat strengthened glass. At global level, the minimum flexural strength required for the design and sizing of glass structural elements is preserved after laser blasting, as a result from a reduction of the characteristic strength and increment of the shape parameter of the corrected Weibull failure distribution. Acknowledgements This work was partially supported by Grant EQC2019-005892-P funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 and, as appropriate, by “ERDF A way of making Europe”, by the “European Union”, by Xunta de Galicia (ED431C 2019/23) and the University of Vigo Scholarship RR6/4/2022. The authors thank the Pontevedresa Group for providing the annealed and heat strengthened soda-lime silicate glass samples. References

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