Geometrically non-linear bending of plates: Implications in curved building façades

Curved glazed façades of buildings are often realized by cold bending of flat plates. This paper is devoted to experimental tests under static loading on the geometrically non-linear anticlastic bending of aluminiumplates, whose constituent material is used as a phantom material to mimic the elastic mechanical behaviour of glass. The 3D displacement field of the plates is reconstructed through the use of the DIC (Digital Image Correlation) technique and several numerical FE analyses are performed to simulate the experimental results. A critical value, corresponding to a configuration of the plate where a change in its curvature sign occurs, of the applied displacement at the plate corner is determined. The results are discussed in terms of critical applied displacement against the plate thickness for different plate sizes. It is shown that the critical displacements are almost independent on the plate size, but linearly depend on the plate thickness.