Abstract
Vertical protruding elements are popularly used for building aesthetics, solar shading, and reduction of energy demand. However, no sufficient design guidelines are available yet for wind loading on curtain walls, especially those with vertical protrusions. In addition, water intrusion tests carried out by curtain wall manufacturers use static or pseudo-dynamic wind loads according to available testing manuals which are not realistic to simulate extreme wind and wind-driven rain conditions. This study investigates the influence of vertical protruding elements on the overall wind actions on a single skin façade using full-scale testing. The results show that vertical protrusions can increase the pressure around the protrusions and the wall (as evidenced by increased pressure coefficients) by as much as 30% and 19%, respectively. Furthermore, the vertical protrusions used in this study increased the overall stiffness of the curtain wall system, which led to an increase in the vibration of the glass units. Wind-driven rainwater intrusion tests on a façade unit without vertical protrusions indicate an increase in water penetration with wind speed at vulnerable joints (i.e., joints with windows) and less than 5 mL at the non-vulnerable joint at all wind speeds tested.
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Acknowledgments
These tests were conducted at the NHERI Wall of Wind Experimental Facility (National Science Foundation Award No. 1520853 and No. 2037899). This paper is based upon work sponsored by the US National Science Foundation under the awards NSF IIP1841503,1841523 and I/UCRC Wind Hazard and Infrastructure Performance #2019-04. The authors also would like to thank Permasteelisa group for providing the curtain wall and curtain wall fixers. The authors also appreciate Roy-Liu Marques, James Erwin, and Walter Conklin for their support in instrumenting the model specimen. The opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not represent the opinions of the funding agencies.
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Journal of Architectural Engineering
Volume 29 • Issue 2 • June 2023
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© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Oct 30, 2021
Accepted: Oct 31, 2022
Published online: Jan 18, 2023
Published in print: Jun 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jun 18, 2023
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