Cast glass has interesting structural opportunities, but is limited by the long and difficult annealing process associated as the size of the object increases. To resolve this issue, excess material is removed, as shown with this large cast glass telescope blank.
Topology optimization could be used to intelligently remove glass from structural cast glass objects while maintining performance.
The optimization framework must understand the behavior of glass, particularly that it is much weaker in tension than it is in compression.
For this research, several optimization algorithms for structural glass were used to design a beam for a 4-point bending load case. The resulting geometries were cut from float glass using a waterjet cutter for physical testing.
The internal stresses of the beam can be observed during testing using cross-polarization films, which allows the different behaviors to be precisely compared.
Properly understanding the effectiveness of these algorithms could lead the development of new categories of cast glass structural form.
We intend to apply this same research process to cast glass structures in the near future.