Introduction

Nowadays, extraordinary building envelopes consisting of over-seized glass panes are realized, which decisively shape the urban landscape. Annealed float glass is fragile and breaks under tensile stress depending on the load duration. The glass dimensions required for these high-quality facade projects can only be achieved sensibly with tempered glass due to its high strength and thermal shock resistance compared to annealed float glass. Increasing the strength by a factor of approximately 1.6 for heat-strengthened glass (HSG) and about 2.7 for fully tempered glass (FTG) makes it possible to design lighter structures and reduce CO2 emissions by using thinner glass and slimmer steel and aluminum profiles.