Comparison of Methods to Determine Load Sharing of Insulating Glass Units for Environmental Loads

In the past few decades, designers increasingly work on glazing projects across the world requiring the use of international glazing standards that often differ from the designer’s national code. Commonly specified international glazing standards include prEN16612, AS1288, ASTM E1300. Each of these standards has a different approach to determine window glass strength. This paper explores one aspect of glazing design for insulating glass units, the method for estimating the load sharing between the lites comprising insulating glass units. Each glazing standard uses a different method for estimating load sharing and how the effects of environmental loads are incorporated into the estimation. Environmental loads include but are not limited to changes in atmospheric pressure, resulting from elevation, climatic, and temperature variations. Additionally, several iterative methods appear in technical literature that attempt to account for most known factors affecting insulating glass l