Tuning the Connector

Abstract

Providing a desired level of isolation in mechanical terms means to limit the forces and moments acting from one system over the other. These limit forces will be based on the properties of the glazed envelope system and its load-bearing capacity. This evaluation needs to be done in two parts. First within the safety criterion which is to protect the glass panels and its components from failure during or after a severe situation like an earthquake, and second within the serviceability criterion which is, in general, to maintain the desired behavior of the envelope system after the incident in terms of air-tightness and water-tightness and prevent distortions in the envelope surface. To satisfy the safety conditions of a glazed system it is necessary to tune the friction damping device in a way that the forces transferred through it are kept below the maximum allowable forces, which can be handled by the glass panel based on the positions of the connection devices. It is both necessary to study this effect both over a single glass panel and within a group of connected glass panels. An analytical approach is presented for tuning the friction based on the behavior of one-panel window glasses. Then in order to check the results of the analytical solutions a numerical modeling will be performed. With the help of numerical modeling it is also possible to investigate more complex glass panel shapes, the effect of local stresses near the places of the friction damping devices and finally different placement of the connection device over the boundaries of the glass panel.