Dynamic racking tests of curtain wall glass elements with in‐plane and out‐of‐plane motions

Abstract

AbstractThis project was conducted to investigate the breakage and fallout behaviour of various types of architectural glass elements in a dry‐glazed curtain wall system under in‐plane and out‐of‐plane dynamic motions. The project was a follow‐up to an earlier project that focused exclusively on in‐plane dynamic racking performance of curtain wall glass elements. The recent data indicated that adding out‐of‐plane motions caused significantly higher amounts of glass breakage and subsequent glass fallout in most glass types that were found during the in‐plane tests to be prone to glass fallout. Specifically, 1/4 in (6 mm) annealed monolithic glass, 1/4 in annealed monolithic glass with a 0·004 in (0·10 mm) PET film (not anchored to the mullions), and 7/16 in (11 mm) fully tempered laminated glass exhibited comparable or higher fallout rates than the already substantial fallout rates that were observed during the in‐plane only racking tests. Unanchored window film was found to be ineffective in resisting post‐breakage glass fallout under dynamic racking motions. In contrast, 1/4 in (6 mm) annealed laminated glass and 7/16 in (11 mm) heat‐strengthened laminated glass exhibited no glass fallout during the out‐of‐plane tests, just as they exhibited no fallout during the in‐plane tests. Out‐of‐plane test results also showed that 3/8 in (10 mm) heat‐strengthened monolithic glass exhibited no fallout, while 3/8 in annealed monolithic glass exhibited very negligible glass fallout. The addition of torsional motions was not found to induce glass fallout in those glass types that resisted glass fallout in previous tests performed without torsional motions.