[en] The structural performance of glass mainly depends on the surface quality and the residual stress state. Surface damage produced during the manufacturing process or subsequent handling, might lead to the presence of microscopic flaws on the surface. The opening or propagation of these microscopic flaws reduce the strength of glass. For this reason, glass is most often tempered before being employed as a structural material. Tempering techniques bring about non-uniform heat transfer rates, which lead to non-homogeneous residual stresses, having a direct impact on the structural behaviour of components. Moreover, once glass is ready to use, its fracture behaviour tends to present significant differences between measured strength values. This results in the need for extensive experimental work, especially if non-uniform residual stresses need to be considered. Thus, this thesis presents a numerical methodology to predict the in-service behaviour of glass plates subjected to bending loads considering the residual stresses developed as a result of non-uniform cooling processes. First, a numerical methodology based on a Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) one-way approach is proposed to consider the influence of non-uniform cooling techniques on the residual stress development during the thermal tempering process. Results show that local flow phenomena during heat treatment process play a vital role in residual stress development in glass plates. In line with this approach, efforts were made to reduce the computational time of the involved calculations. For this purpose, the influence of volumetric radiation and the viscoelastic behaviour of glass were analysed. As a result, a decrease of around 87% of the computational time with respect to the initially proposed procedure was achieved. The results were in good agreement with both, experimental measurements in laboratory case studies and an industrial tempering case study published in the literature. Secondly, a statistical-numerical procedure to predict the failure probability of structural glass components is presented. To this end, statistical assessment based on the Generalised Local Model (GLM) was carried out. Bending loads, which may result from the effect of wind, snow or the weight of pedestrians, are considered the main loads acting on structural glass plates. Therefore, plates exhibiting different residual stress conditions subjected to bending loads were analysed. The most striking observation to emerge from the analysis was the transferability between the failure cumulative functions of annealed and tempered glass, with the latter exhibiting different residual stress patterns. A master Primary Failure Cumulative Damage Function (PFCDF) was also calculated by jointly assessing the results of the experimental tests. This enables a more reliable prediction of the fracture behaviour of annealed and tempered glass. Overall, average relative differences between the predicted and experimental data were below 10%. Finally, particularly noteworthy was the scatter band of the experimental results. Given this spread, statistical evaluation can be considered essential for designing or assessing structural pre-stressed components.

[eu] Gainazalaren kalitateak eta beiraren tentsio-egoerak eragin zuzena dute bere portaera estrukturalean. Fabrikazio edo ondorengo manipulazio prozesuen zehar beiraren gainazalean gertatzen diren kontaktu ugariek pitzadura mikroskopikoak sor ditzakete. Pitzadura horiek irekitzeak edo hedatzeak beiraren erresistentzia murrizten du. Hori dela eta, beira material estruktural gisa erabili ahal izateko, sarritan tenple izeneko tratamendu termikoa aplikatzen zaio. Hala eta guztiz ere, tenple teknikek bero transferentzia ez uniformeak eragiten dituzte. Horren ondorioz, portaera estrukturalean eragin zuzena duten hondar-tentsio ez uniformeak sortzen dira. Horrez gain, behin beira erabiltzeko prest dagoenean, bere frakturako portaerak dispertsio handia erakusten du neurtutako indar balioen artean. Horrek kanpaina esperimental handiak ezinbestekoak izatea eragiten du, batez ere hondar-tentsio ez uniformeak kontutan hartu behar badira. Gauzak horrela, tesi honetan tenplaketan sortutako hondar-tentsioak kontuan hartuz, makurdura kargen eraginpean dauden beirazko plaken portaera estrukturala aurreikusteko metodologia numeriko bat aurkezten da. Tenpleko hozketa ez uniformeak hondar-tentsioetan duten eragina kontsideratzeko, Fluido-Estruktura Interakzioan (FSI ingelesezko siglen arabera) oinarritzen den modelizazioa proposatzen da. Gauzak horrela, tratamendu termikoen zehar gertatzen diren fluxu fenomeno lokalak hondar-tentsioen sorreran eragin handia dutela erakutsi da. Aldi berean, kalkuluen kostu konputazionala murrizteko teknikak proposatzen dira. Horretarako, radiazio bolumetrikoaren eta beiraren portaera biskoelastikoaren eragina aztertzen da. Lortutako aurkikuntzek hasiera baten proposatutako prozeduraren kostu konputazionalarekiko %87-ko murrizketa bat suposatu dute. Azkenik, lortutako emaitzak, bai laborategiko emaitza esperimentalekin, bai bibliografian oinarritutako kasu industrial batekin bat datozela egiaztatu da. Bestalde, beirazko pieza estrukturalen hutsegitea aurreikusteko modelo estatistiko-numeriko bat aurkezten da. Horretarako, Modelo Lokal Orokortuan (GLM ingelesezko siglen arabera) oinarritutako ebaluazio estatistikoa egin da. Beirazko plaka estrukturaletan eragiten duten karga nagusienak haizea, elurra edo oinezkoen pisuaren ondorioz sortutakoak dira. Hori dela eta, makurdura kargen eraginpean dauden eta tentsio egoera ezberdinak aurkezten duten plakak aztertu dira. Egindako analisitik, behaketarik harrigarriena izan da suberatutako eta tenplatutako plaken hutsegite-funtzioen transferigarritasuna frogatzea. Aldi berean, egindako kanpaina esperimentalaren ebaluazio bateratuak PFCDF (ingelesetik Primary Failure Cumulative Damage Function) orokor bat kalkulatzea ahalbidetu du, beiraren haustura portaeraren aurreikustea fidagarriagoa eginez. Orokorrean, %10-eko bataz besteko diferentzia erlatiboa lortu da aurreikusitako emaitzaren eta datu esperimentalen artean. Azkenik, bereziki aipagarria izan da emaitza esperimentalen dispertsio banda. Hau ikusita, funtsezkoa kontsideratu da ebaluazio estatistikoa gauzatzea beirazko pieza estrukturalak diseinatzeko edo aztertzeko.