Study on pressure-equalization of curtain wall systems

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, aluminium-curtain-wall systems are often used in southeast Asia. Many of these curtain-wall systems can be classified as a two-barrier system with a front-panel (the rainscreen) and the back-panel (the air barrier). The back-panels of such systems are usually thin and flexible. Compared with the brick or brick-veneer rainscreen walls, where the back-panels are very rigid, the pressure-equalization characteristics are expected to be quite different. To improve on the understanding of the behaviour of such systems and to evaluate design parameters, full-scale measurements were carried out. A numerical model which takes into account the flexibility of the back-panel has been developed for the prediction of cavity pressure in curtain walls. The results based on this model show good agreement with those obtained from full-scale experiments.