structural ?

[Ann Demko]

OMG. Accidentally posted my question twice. Tried to delete one of them and poof they were both gone. Let me try again.
I am still in the design stage of a long ongoing desire to great an outdoor sculptural flower garden arrangement. The heads of the flowers are a 22" glass disk mounted on a steel plate to which 2 circular rings 2" wide, one larger than the other, will be welded. The glass will be mounted on the plate by steel L supports and silicone. I'm using silicone because I don't want movement of the glass in the supports for fear of chipping and because it will allow for metal expansion and contraction of the metal due to the heat and cold temperatures we have in KY. Maybe not necessary but I"d feel better using both systems. Guess I'm kinda a belt and suspenders girl. Well the other day we had up to 50 MPH winds and I panicked. I thought about how the flower heads would be like a big stop sign taking the wind full force torqueing and shifting in response. I'm thinkin torqueing would not be kind to my glass. My question is, what thickness or gauge steel plate could stand that kind of force without twisting? I want to thank you ahead of time for any input or suggestions you might have. I truly appreciate your all's knowledge of all things glass.

[jolly]

I would have to see some sort of drawing to see what you mean exactly. Could you do a drawing and take a photo of it and post the photo so we could better understand the problem?

[Tom Fuhrman]

I would think that 16 ga. or heavier steel would be sufficient to not torque or bend much in 22" dia. circles. You can always"beef" it up a little with some other supporting structure. Drawing/sketch or something would be helpful as was noted.

[Stephen Richard]

Why do you need steel backing anyway? If you have circular steel supports and can attach the uprights to those supports, you have a strong structure. A 540mm dia piece 6mm or more thick can take a lot of wind.