DYNAMIC RACKING TESTS OF CURTAIN WALL GLASS ELEMENTS WITH INPLANE ANDOUT-OF-PLANE MOTIONS

This project was conducted to investigate the breakage and fallout beh aviour of various types of architectural glass elements in a dry-glaze d curtain wall system under in-plane and out-of-plane dynamic motions. The project was a followup to an earlier project that focused exclusi vely on in-plane dynamic racking performance of curtain wall glass ele ments. The recent data indicated that adding out-of-plane motions caus ed 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 mo nolithic 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) full y tempered laminated glass exhibited comparable or higher fallout rate s 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 a nd 7/16 in (11 mm) heat-strengthened laminated glass exhibited no glas s fallout during the out-of-plane tests,just as they exhibited no fall out during the in-plane tests. Out-of-plane test results also showed t hat 3/8 in (10 mm) heat-strengthened monolithic glass exhibited no fal lout, while 3/8 in annealed monolithic glass exhibited very negligible glass fallout. The addition of torsional motions was not found to ind uce glass fallout in those glass types that resisted glass fallout in previous tests performed without torsional motions.