SR17 The development of a procedure and rig for testing the racking resistance of curtain wall glazing (2007)

For some years, the construction industry has been installing curtain wall glazing systems on multi-storey buildings. The New Zealand loadings code has requirements for the separation of non-structural building elements from the building skeleton to prevent damage during a seismic event.

Until now, there has been no procedure for the testing of curtain wall glazing systems under racking loads to assess their performance.

A literature survey conducted on the subject failed to find sufficient useful information on which to build a test procedure, so an investigation was undertaken on likely building deformations and code deformation requirements.

This work has culminated in the design of a testing procedure and test rig capable of racking most available curtain wall glazing systems.