Glass shelf design strength
Glass shelf design strength
(OP)
Hi.
I am designing a glass shelf that is made of 3/4" thk tempered glass and is 23" wide by 26" deep (front edge to back edge). This shelf is supported on the sides of the shelf only at the very rear by 4 clamping type shelf brackets, 2 per side. The center to center distance between the clamps is 5 1/2 inches. This shelf will need to support a weight of 35 lbs centered on this shelf and 8 from the front edge of the shelf.
How do I analyze whether this shelf will be adequately strong to hold this weight? How do I break this problem down to confidently say that this shelf is strong enough to support this weight?
See my attached pdf file.
Thanks to all in advance
I am designing a glass shelf that is made of 3/4" thk tempered glass and is 23" wide by 26" deep (front edge to back edge). This shelf is supported on the sides of the shelf only at the very rear by 4 clamping type shelf brackets, 2 per side. The center to center distance between the clamps is 5 1/2 inches. This shelf will need to support a weight of 35 lbs centered on this shelf and 8 from the front edge of the shelf.
How do I analyze whether this shelf will be adequately strong to hold this weight? How do I break this problem down to confidently say that this shelf is strong enough to support this weight?
See my attached pdf file.
Thanks to all in advance





RE: Glass shelf design strength
RE: Glass shelf design strength
RE: Glass shelf design strength
Dik
RE: Glass shelf design strength
RE: Glass shelf design strength
Unfortunately, I'm not versed in FEA nor do I have access to an FEA program.
Are there any on-line FEA free programs that I could learn and use appropriately out there on the Web?
RE: Glass shelf design strength
Free on-line programs are nice but are not always accurate. If you are not familiar with FEA, how would you know if it were wrong?
Again, just my opinion.
Harold
SW2009 SP4.0 OPW2009 SP2 Win XP Pro 2002 SP3
Dell 690, Xeon 5160 @3.00GHz, 3.25GB RAM
nVidia Quadro FX4600
www.lumenflow.com
RE: Glass shelf design strength
the primary concern is to avoid putting the glass in tension AND to provide "soft" supportng boundary conditions
no contact with hard materials
soft in this context can be typical "hard" plastics
eliminate sharp corners for materials contacting the glass to distribute the local loads
design appears very robust
RE: Glass shelf design strength
Exactly why I included the word "appropriately" .
Thanks so much for the advice. I have always known that FEA is not some CAD - like program that anyone without training or engineering education could just use willy nilly.
I understand where you are coming from.
Thanks