Interactive Nonlinear Analysis of Insulating Glass Units

An insulating glass (IG) unit consists of two glass plates, normally rectangular, placed parallel to each other using a spacer and sealed with a sealant to an extent that the whole unit is considered air tight after manufacture. Desiccants are used inside the spacer to absorb any moisture in the air trapped inside. The structural behavior of these units when subjected to lateral pressures induced by wind loads and variations of temperatures is not very well understood. A theoretical model is presented here to analyze the sharing of the loads between the two plates using a nonlinear plate analysis theory.