Spandrel Glass Breakage

Curtain wall design commonly uses insulating glass units for vision and spandrel glazing to provide better visual harmonization of building façade glass. Risks with this design approach include higher thermal stresses, especially when low-emissivity coatings are used on insulating glass units in spandrel areas. Ceramic enamel frit, commonly used to opacify spandrel glass, is known to induce a bending strength reduction of up to 40%. The ability of ceramic enamel frit coated glass to resist thermal stress is similarly reduced. Multiple incidences of thermal stress related fracture have occurred. Silicone spandrel glass coatings have been examined as a solution to prevent the strength reduction in heat-treated glass. Four-point bending tests were used to investigate the flexural strength of coated heat-strengthened and fully-tempered glass. Ball drop testing was used to investigate the impact resistance of coated fully-tempered glass. This presentation will give examples of breakage of ceramic enamel frit coated glass and the test program showing the benefits of silicone coated glass.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand what ceramic enamel frit glass breakage looks like.
2. Understand the contributing causes of glass breakage. Can the causes be eliminated or reduced?
3. Understand the differences in the approach between European standards and American standards to deal with glass breakage.
4. Learn how to use silicone opacifiers to avoid glass breakage.

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