Considerations should be taken into about glass curtain wall

Glass curtain wall is a unique design in modern architecture. One of the biggest advantages of the glass curtain walls is that energy-efficient glass greatly reduces the energy consumption of buildings. However, there are a few considerations should be taken into before you are planning to use glass curtain wall in your next building project. For example, some glass curtain walls due to unreasonable design, material selection and construction have certain problems such as glass breakage, glass fall, and water leakage in a variety of applications.

1. Glass Breakage
In most cases, glass burst is caused by the impurity nickel sulfide. Nickel sulfide is an inevitable harmful impurity in the production process of glass. Nickel sulfide itself does not cause any damage to the glass. However, when curtain wall panel containing nickel sulfide is installed on the curtain wall, the volume of nickel sulfide is generated due to the increase of external temperature. Minor changes cause tiny cracks in the interior of the glass. These cracks pass through the tempered glass tension and release the internal energy, causing the glass to break. Next, thermal stress is an important cause of glass curtain wall breakage. There are many reasons for the heating of the curtain wall systems, but the most important heat source is sunlight. When the sunlight shines on the surface of the glass curtain wall, the glass will be thermally expanded. When there are cracks or micro cracks in the edge of the glass, these defects are easily affected by thermal stress. As the temperature difference increases, the thermal stress causes glass breakage.

2. Fire Resistance
In general, glass curtain wall has poor fire resistance. The glass curtain wall is a non-combustible material, but in the face of fire, it can soften or even melt. In that regard, the fire protection requirements of the building must be fully considered. Fortunately, fire-rated curtain wall becomes popular in the modern tall buildings in recent years. For those considering using fire-rated glazing systems to create design-forward assemblies worthy of such praise, the path to safe and successful installations would not be daunting. In addition, composite fireproof glass is currently the most widely used fire curtain wall glass.

3. Structural Sealant Failure
Considering that most types of curtain wall systems have long been affected by the unfavorable factors of the natural environment, such as wind, sun, rain, ultraviolet radiation, earthquakes, etc., it is required that the glass curtain wall must have weather resistance, durability, corrosion resistance, as a bonding material. Structural sealant has become the focus of attention.