ANALYSIS OF STRUCTURAL GLAZING SYSTEMS

Exterior glazing has been popular in commercial buildings especially i n multistory buildings; the glass panels are bonded to the exterior of the building by silicone sealants. Thus, the glazing is identified as ''structural glazing''. Of all the structural glazing systems, the fo ur sided support system is the most critical one. As the glass panels are designed to withstand lateral wind pressures, and when the lateral deflection of the panels increases more than its thickness, the glass plates behave nonlinearly, creating very complex stress distribution in the sealants. The sealants are subjected to normal, shear and momen t forces on the edges, and a mathematical model is developed to comput e the stresses in the sealants. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.