Towards Standardised Strength Assessment: Protocol Development for Reused Glass

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/Report › Conference contribution › Contributed › peer-review

Contributors

Abstract

The reuse of architectural glass is a key pathway towards circular construction, yet the absence of standardised procedures for disassembly, specimen preparation, and mechanical characterisation of post-consumer glass limits comparability across studies in absence of a standardised procedure. We investigated current testing and evaluation procedures and reproduced the full process chain –  from deconstruction of insulating glass units and structured specimen preparation with cleaning and surface inspection, to comparative mechanical testing using coaxial double-ring (CDR) test rig. As an update on ongoing research, we provide contributions to developing a harmonised approach by comparing existing methods and investigating a statistical evaluation that allows for uniform comparable strength values over different populations and procedures. Therefore, failure stresses are evaluated following ASTM C1499 and EN 1288 and transformed via time-equivalent and effective-area corrections employing normal, lognormal- and Weibull distributions. This study explicitly investigates the suitability of CDR testing for naturally aged glass – with two configurations of support and load radii, as well as two load rates. Accordingly, effects of parameter choice on derived stresses and goodness-of-fit metrics are quantified. Specimens were extracted from two façades located in Munich, Germany. Results, used as a basis for underlining the need for further discussion in the community, reveal systematic differences attributable to choices of geometry, load rates, and calculation methods. They show that loading configuration and calculation approaches strongly modulate derivable bending strengths. The resulting workflow—from deconstruction to probabilistic evaluation—supports the continuing discussion on harmonised strength assessment of naturally aged glass and provides an evidential basis for ongoing standardisation to enable circular use of architectural glass.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Challenging Glass Conference 10
Place of PublicationDelft, Niederlande
Number of pages15
Volume10
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2026
Peer-reviewedYes

Publication series

SeriesChallenging glass
Volume10
ISSN2589-8019

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-2419-8934/work/219975672
ORCID /0000-0002-1130-3264/work/219977071
Mendeley 452541eb-1e85-33c2-91e5-d578a009f08e
unpaywall 10.47982/cgc.10.733