Double Glazed Glass Curtain Wall

Curtain Wall Glazing
Technically speaking, curtain wall glazing systems, in their simplest form, are types of curtain wall systems consisting of glass that is bonded or anchored back to a structure without the use of continuously gasketed aluminum pressure plates or caps. The glass can be comprised of monolithic, laminated, dual-glazed or even triple-glazed insulating glass units (IGUs). The back-up structure may use horizontal and/or vertical aluminum mullions or be a glass mullion, steel blade, cable or stainless steel rod. The interior and exterior may use extruded silicone/EPDM gaskets, or a wet sealed silicone depending on the system. Among the modern curtain wall designs, structural glass curtain wall is the favorite for many architects, because this system creates a completely clean, flush exterior appearance in applications while the interior members have many different options depending on design and budget.

Double Glazed Glass Curtain Wall
In general, glass has an expected service life well in excess of 60 years. Insulated glass has shorter expectancies: edge seal failures and infiltration of water vapour into the space between the panes are the main causes of failure. Insulating glass units to BE EN 1279 should be specified to give an expected service life of 25 years. Safety glass should comply with BS 6206. In practical applications, curtain wall glazing system configuration influences the thermal characteristics of the curtain wall facade system which is calculated to ISO 10077–1. The less heat is lost through the glazing, the lower the U-value. Measures to lower U-values include:
•Metal frames with thermal breaks to reduce linear thermal transmittance.
•Spacing frames further apart reduces U–values by increasing the insulating cavity. But frame cross–sections, glazing thickness and hardware strength may have to be increased at higher capital cost.

In some curtain wall construction, glass curtain wall is generally with double glazed units. For example, high sound insulation: double glazed units can decline of 27-40 decibel noise, 80 decibel traffic noise outside the room, then only 50 decibels. In recent years, high-rise buildings with double glazed curtain walls with the drive to make them energy efficient have been largely responsible for development in the field of architectural glazing, and the main focus of window glass design has been on improving its optical and thermal properties. Special highly transparent and heat-reflective glazing can be used to save energy by reducing heat loss through windows, as well as using solar transmittance control to minimise cooling and air conditioning costs. Furthermore, radiative heat loss from a standard double-glazed, air filled unit is about double (about 65%) the heat loss through convection and conduction (about 35%). Therefore, to achieve higher thermal performance of windows, radiative heat loss needs to be reduced.