Laminated glass vs tempered glass
I wonder which one is stronger..... In Ballast practice problem, I encountered the question below and it claims laminated glass is stronger. See it as below.
In fundamentals of building construction p 713-714, it says tempered is four times stronger than annealed glass and laminated glass is not as strong as annealed glass of the same thickness but it holds shards of glass in place when it breaks.
Anyone has a thought?
-
Wen,
It comes down to what happens when each glass breaks in my opinion. When you break tempered glass, it breaks into tiny little shards (think your car window). The panel of glass is completely broken, but the pieces are small and less likely to hurt someone.
With laminated glass, the glass itself is comprised of two panels of glass with a thin layer of clear membrane in between. It is usually thicker than tempered glass. When it breaks, the membrane layer holds the shards in place. Yes, the glass will splinter into several pieces, but the point is that they don't fall on the ground.
I would say if asked, laminated glass is definitely the stronger of the two.
-
Hey Wen Zhu,
I think this is a bit of a tricky question in my opinion. I believe what they are going for is which type of glass has the capacity to be the strongest. Tempered glass is only as strong as the thickest pane possible to make. With laminated glass the sky is really the limit as one could take that thickest tempered glass and laminate it in multiple layers to make a stronger glass pane. They reference that in their answer of bullet resistant glass which depending on the protection level typically has many layers. Hope that helps.
Aaron
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
5 comments