Analysis of Structural Glass Panels under Impact Loading using Operational Modal Analysis

The latest technology and architectural trends have significantly improved the use of a large variety of glass products in construction which, in function of their own characteristics, allow to design and calculate structural glass elements under safety conditions. Both monolithic as well as laminated glass can be used for these proposals. In the case of laminated elements interlayers of polymers are introduced between the monolithic glass layers so that an improvement of some properties, such as damping or safety, is achieved. In this paper, glass panels are tested under soft impact loading (using the European standard UNE-EN 12600:2003 specifications) to analyse its dynamic response. With this proposal, operational modal analysis is used to identify the modal parameters of the panels and operational deflection shapes are obtained during the impact tests. Both data are used to assembly and validate a numerical model of the impact loading tests that allows the stresses estimation in the glass panels