Full-Scale Study on Breakage Behavior of 6mm Thick Toughened Glass in Fires

Abstract

The objective of this work is to investigate the crack and fallout of 6 mm thick toughened glass in enclosure fires. Full-scale experiments are carried out in the ISO 9705 fire test room using pool fires with different pan sizes. The time-dependent temperature differences between the exposed and shaded regions of glazing edges at typical positions are monitored. The experimental results illustrate that compared with the floated glass with the same thickness, the toughened glass will crack and fall out at larger temperature differences. Here it is suggested that the critical breakage temperature difference for the 6 mm thick toughened glass is about 330-380 deg C. However, the whole piece of toughened glass would turn into many small fragments when the window glazing breaks. In this case, the pool fire is enhanced strongly since a relatively large vent forms in the window glazing. In addition, the full-scale experimental results also indicate that horizontally partitioning windows with frames may be helpful to prevent the whole large and tall toughened glass from falling out completely in fires. Language: en