

Glass, as a load bearing material, has been the focus of extensive research and development over the past few decades. Stability of slender glass elements and glass laminates has been studied by many researchers, initially studying behaviour on small scale samples and comparing glass behaviour with the behaviour of other, more established, structural materials. Similarities and comparisons have been made between the behaviour of steel and glass. In this paper the behaviour of structural glass frames will be discussed. A short introduction with case studies showing the use of glass frames in recently completed landmark projects is presented. Both global and local geometric stability is discussed with specific attention given to the boundary conditions imposed by expected initial imperfections and restraints. Practical modelling approaches addressing the complex behaviour of multi-ply glass laminates with viscoelastic interlayer material is also proposed and discussed. This leads into a geometrically non-linear analysis of an example glass frame showing predicted P-Δ-δ behaviour and comparison between effective thickness (2D plate) simplifications and full build-up (3D brick) numerical approximations. Throughout this paper numerical discretisation and analysis is performed using the Strand 7 software package.