Civil and Environmental Engineering Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2020
Journal
Construction and Building Materials
Volume
250
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.118918
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Transparency, illumination, aesthetic and energy requirements have considerably increased the use of glass in modern high-rise buildings. During fire exposure, fracture and shattering of windows and facades accelerate the spread and severity of fire, which increases the risk for the occupants and the amount of structural damage. This paper aims at analyzing the effect of non-uniform thermal gradients on the flexural capacity of ordinary glass panels. Both transparent and tinted glass panels are considered to account for widely-used glass compositions. The bending response of fire-damaged glass panels is experimentally explored considering different durations of thermal exposure. The thermal breakage due to non-uniform temperature distributions over the height is also assessed. A finite element investigation is then conducted to further explore the experimental findings.
