Seismic Testing of Glazing Systems and Proposed Design Tool

Glazing damage reported following recent New Zealand earthquakes, i.e. the 2011 (M-w 6.2) Christchurch and 2016 (M-w 7.8) Kaikoura earthquakes, exceeded what would be expected from glazing designed or tested to council's compliance pathways, which indicates improvements are required to the existing pathways. Two series of proof-of-concept tests were conducted to induce simulated seismic actions on glazing specimens to better understand the failure mechanisms of gasket dislodgement, cracks in the glazing, and dislodgement of the glass to improve existing compliance tests and engineering design. The Series 1 tests consisted of 6 mm annealed window glass clamped in a steel frame with the load applied to the glazing with hydraulic jacks positioned in three distinct positions. The Series 2 tests consisted of a reverse cyclic loading on a commercial window located near the bottom of a direct-fixed rainscreen specimen. The test results were used to formulate a method that could predict the likelihood of seismic damage to glazing systems, improve compliance pathways, and is useful as a forensic predictive tool.