• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Building Construction Conference
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• 2014.11a
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• pp.78-80
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• 2014

Silicone structural glazing (SSG) is a method utilizing a silicone adhesive to attach glass, metal, or other panel material to the structure of a building. Windload and other impact loads on the facade are transferred from the glass or panel through the silicone structural sealant to the systems' framework. Silicone structural glazing systems are currently a very common method of glazing throughout the world. Locally, structural silicone glazing has become very common to achieve aesthetically pleasing and high utilization of small land for both residential and commercial building. Although structural silicone glazing has been utilized for approximately thirty years in Korea, the understanding of its technology was low and limited. Consequently, Korean projects experienced many quality issues during assembly and construction, even in very recently finished buildings. Adhesion loss and water infiltration occurred on more than one project, and the time and cost to repair these issues were substantial. In general, there are two kinds of structural silicones depending on fabrication methods. 1part structural silicone is for site glazing system and 2part structural silicone is for unitized factory glazing system. In this paper, 2part structural silicone which is very common for factory fabricating curtainwall systems was evaluated with regards to various mixing ratio. Since the structural performance of 2part sealant can be affected by mixing ratios, some extra ranges of recommended mixing ratio were evaluated to see any performance differences. Besides on cure profile, comparative evaluations for mechanical properties and adhesion develop on common building substrates were conducted.

• International Journal of High-Rise Buildings
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.345-354
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• 2013

This paper presents an advanced engineering technique using finite element analysis to improve structural silicone glazing (SSG) design in high-performance curtain wall systems for building facade. High wind pressures often result in bulky SSG aluminum extrusion profile dimensions. Architectural desire for aesthetically slender curtain wall sight-lines and reduction in aluminum usage led to optimization of structural silicone bite geometry for improved stress distribution through use of finite element analysis of the hyperelastic silicone models. This advanced design technique compared to traditional SSG design highlights differences in stress distribution contours in the silicone sealant. Simplified structural engineering per the traditional SSG design method lacks accurate forecasting of material and stress optimization, as shown in the advanced analysis and design. Full scale physical specimens were tested to verify design capacity in addition to correlate physical test results with the theoretical simulation to provide confidence of the model. This design technique will introduce significant engineering advancement to the curtain wall industry and building facade.