The effect of glass panel dimension on the fire response of glass façades

Abstract

Different sizes and shapes of glass products are increasingly employed in building envelopes, but little is known about the effect of glass panel dimension on the fire safety of glass façades. In the present work, two experiments with glass dimensions of 300 × 300 × 6 mm3 and 600 × 600 × 6 mm3 were conducted to verify a finite element method model in the authors’ in-house software. Then, a total of 27 numerical cases were designed. The glass panel with dimensions from 100 × 100 mm2 to 1000 × 1000 mm2 and length-to-width aspect ratios of 400:1, 100:1, 25:1, 25:4, 4:1 and 25:16 were studied. The breakage time, stress distribution and crack path were calculated and demonstrated. It was established that the fire resistance of glass decreases with the panel dimension increase regardless of the mesh size and number. While the glass panel with a larger aspect ratio presents better fire resistance. The stress distribution variance caused by size and shape effect is responsible for the different fire performances of glass façades, but the number and distribution of small flaws and defects in glazing are also important. The results are intended to provide references for fire safety optimization of glass façades.