Experimental and Numerical Study of Glass Facade Breakage Behavior under Fire Conditions (eBook)

Dr. Yu Wang is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Edinburgh. After receiving his double Ph.D. degrees from University of Science and Technology of China and City University of Hong Kong in 2016, he became a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore. His Ph.D. thesis was nominated as an “Excellent Ph.D. Thesis” by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal papers. His research interests include thermal breakage behavior of glass façades, compartment fire dynamics, and fire safety of green buildings.

Supervisor’s Foreword 6
Abstract 7
Acknowledgements 10
Contents 11
Nomenclature 14
1 Introduction 16
1.1 Backgrounds and Underlying Physics 16
1.2 Scientific Issued to Be Solved 19
1.3 Research Content and Organization of the Thesis 20
References 21
2 Experimental and Numerical Methods 23
2.1 Experimental Methods 23
2.1.1 Full-Scale Experimental System 23
2.1.2 Small-Scale Experimental Apparatus 27
2.2 Numerical Methods 30
2.2.1 Stress Prediction 30
2.2.2 Crack Prediction 34
References 40
3 Breakage of Framing Glass Façades in Fire 41
3.1 Introduction 41
3.2 Experimental Design and Numerical Method 42
3.3 Experimental Results 45
3.3.1 Heat Release Rate and Time of First Crack 45
3.3.2 Glass Surface and Air Temperatures 47
3.3.3 Heat Flux and Cracking Behavior 50
3.3.4 Numerical Comparison 55
3.4 Numerical Results 59
3.4.1 Cases Design and Parameter Setting 59
3.4.2 Simulation of Different Shaded Cases 62
3.4.3 Simulation of Different Constrained Cases 65
3.5 Summary 67
References 69
4 Breakage of Point Supported Glass Façades in Fire 70
4.1 Introduction 70
4.2 Experimental Design 70
4.3 Experimental Results and Discussion 72
4.3.1 Time of First Crack 72
4.3.2 Glass Surface and Gas Temperatures 74
4.3.3 Heat Release Rate 78
4.3.4 Cracking and Fallout Behavior 78
4.3.5 Comparison and Discussion 79
4.4 Numerical Design 83
4.4.1 Material 83
4.4.2 Thermal Loading 84
4.5 Numerical Results and Discussion 86
4.5.1 Cases 1–9 Under Uniform Thermal Loading 86
4.5.2 Cases 10–16 Under Non-uniform Thermal Loading 88
4.6 Comparison and Discussion 92
4.7 Summary 94
References 96
5 Influence of Fire Location on Breakage Behavior 98
5.1 Introduction 98
5.2 Fire Location Change in x Direction 98
5.2.1 Point-Supported Single Glazing 98
5.2.2 Framing Double Glazing 106
5.3 Fire Location Change in y Direction 112
5.3.1 Cases Design 112
5.3.2 Frame Supported Glass Façades 113
5.3.3 Point Supported Glass Façades 116
5.3.4 Comparison and Discussion 118
5.4 Summary 119
References 121
6 Breakage Mechanism and Heat Transfer 123
6.1 Introduction 123
6.2 Glass Breaking Strength 123
6.2.1 Experimental Design 123
6.2.2 Glass Samples with Different Surface Treatments 124
6.2.3 Glass Samples at Elevated Temperatures 127
6.2.4 Analysis of Critical Temperature Differences 131
6.3 Theoretical Breakage Prediction Model 133
6.3.1 Single Glazing 133
6.3.2 Double Glazing 135
6.4 Summary 138
References 138
7 Conclusions and Further Work 140
7.1 Introduction 140
7.2 Conclusions 140
7.3 Recommendations for Further Research 142
Appendix A Publications of This Thesis 143
Appendix B Awards During Ph.D. Study 145
Appendix C Attendance of Research Projects 146