Low-Cost Double Curvature: Geometrical and Structural Potentials of Rectangular, Cold-Bent Glass Construction

Abstract

The realization of doubly curved façades often requires large investments in fabrication equipment and produces additional waste through subtractive fabrication processes and non-reusable molds. In glass construction, elastic bending techniques can be used for small curvatures. This paper continues previous research of the authors on bending rectangular glass elements into irregularly curved panels. First, we analyze the stresses occurring in cold bent glass during assembly, thus defining a particlespring model which is able to compute approximate stresses in real-time during the bending procedure. In a second step, we compare the structural performance of the bent glass with that of flat panels using FE-analysis. Finally, we illustrate the implementations on multi-panel façade layouts. We analyze the dependencies between curvature, gap-tolerance and panelization. We present a method to minimize gap-tolerances by optimizing the distribution of surface curvature. Our results highlight the structural and geometrical potentials and possible applications for curved glass construction.