Characterization of the Residual Stress State in Commercially Fully Toughened Glass

Toughened glass is often used in load carrying elements due to the relatively high tensile strength compared with float glass. The apparent tensile strength of toughened glass is a combination of the pure material strength and the residual stresses imposed by the toughening process. This paper is concerned with an experimental characterization of the residual stress state for toughened glass. Results for the variation of residual stresses within 32 square specimens with a side length of 300 mm are investigated. The specimens varied in thickness and one group was glass with low iron content. The photoelastic constant was estimated from a four-point bending test. The experimental results revealed large variations in the residual stress state within each specimen and between groups of different thicknesses. The results are compared with a nonstandard fragmentation test, showing that the fragment size does not seem to be dependent on the local variations of the residual stress state in a specimen.