New Bio-inspired solutions for toughened architectural glass

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Glass is prominent in everyday life and in industry, but its inherent brittleness still limits the range of its applications. We have recently developed a novel, bio-inspired and low-cost approach to significantly increase the toughness of glass. A 3D laser engraver is used to generate networks of weak interfaces and in case of excessive stresses the cracks are channelled into configurations where their propagation is more difficult. Our initial work focused on uniaxial tensile loading and mode I fracture on thin (150 microns) glass samples. We propose to explore, optimize and test new types of 3D engraved patterns to improve the performance of thick (5 mm) glass sheets used in windows and architectural glass. For these applications we will focus on improving the resistance of glass to flexural stresses, impacts and thermal shocks, while preserving an acceptable optical clarity and long-term stability. In particular, our engraving method will increase the resistance to impact of fragile glass-ceramics used in high-temperature applications, and which cannot be tempered. We will also use engraving to increase the performance of thick soda-lime glass to increase resistance to impact and resistance to thermal shocks, providing an interesting and highly cost effective alternative to tempered glass and to glass-ceramics for some applications. There are several fabricators of glass in Canada, and the new glasses developed in this project have a large economic potential. For example high-temperature ceramic-glass used for fireproof windows, ovens, heating lamps or industrial furnaces is a $700 million market in North America. Some of the new high-temperature toughened glasses developed in this work represent a new type of glass which would have no competition on this market.