Help Define Object (What is This?)

[haphazard]

I work for a school website and she wants me to figure out what these x's on the glass wall are. She believes they are important and should have a caption to explain them underneath the picture. I have included the picture. If you have any questions please ask. Supposedly she says they have to do with civil engineering.

PS Sorry the Image is so small.

 

[bimr]

It is not really clear what you are showing, but I will take a guess.

It appears that this picture shows an exterior architectural glass wall.

The X's look like the hardware that is holding the glass panel sections together. The hardware also attaches the glass to the I-Beam which is used to support the glass. The struts are called "spiders" by Oldcastle. Other firms call the hardware "inline junctions". The hardware is supplied with the glass system. You can examples on page 12 of the brochure:

http://www.oldcastleglass.com/sites/default/files/structuralglass.pdf

The glass is known as a structural glass wall system so that must be where the civil engineering comes in. The wall design must be strong enough to withstand the force of the wind as well as any seismic loading.

 

[MiketheEngineer]

I tend to agree with bmir. They make the glass panels work in unison which gives some "repetitive" help if an adjacent panel gets loaded up or even somewhat overloaded.

Then again - it could be some crazy architects' handiwork...

 

[msquared48]

Remnants of an ancient alien civilization?

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering
Motto: KISS
Motivation: Don't ask

 

[diggerman]

I concur. It definately appears like just an architectural piece of equipment to support the glass. Could also be some form of load transfer to/from the glass to the beam without shattering it. GREAT DESIGN ))))))))