Modeling Thermomechanical Behaviors of Double-Skin Glass Facades under a Fire

Glass facade systems have gained much popularity in the construction industry in recent years due to their architectural features and superior acoustic and thermal insulation properties. An important development in facade design is the double-skin facade (DSF), widely used in shopping malls and office buildings to reduce acoustic impact and heat load while allowing natural daylight. However, the DSF system has the potential to become a death trap because smoke and other toxic gases can become confined within the cavity. Moreover, due to its brittle nature, glass expands and breaks easily at elevated temperatures, and this can escalate the severity of a fire outbreak [1-5]. This is of particular concern in DSFs because a loss of facade integrity may provide a channel for fire spreading to other levels and adjacent buildings. To prevent a fire from spreading, DSFs must be carefully designed with the aims of enhance its thermal performance and minimizing the occurrence of fire jumping up or down levels. Therefore, it is essential to understand thermo-mechanical mechanisms of the DSF under a fire. On the basis of our previous numerical and simulation work [6-9], the present study develops a novel computational framework based on smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique to simulate the thermal degradation of DSFs under the fire conditions. The proposed model is validated using previous experimental data and then the validated model is utilized to derive empirical equations characterizing spatial and temporal variations of temperature along the interior and exterior glass panes of DSFs. Generally, the temperature variation in DSF is determined by the location of the required point in relation to the inclined hot air flow. Furthermore, numerical simulations for the same DSF configuration but equipped with venetian blinds are conducted to examine the influence of the blinds on the fire performance of glass DSFs. It is demonstrated that the “blind tilt angle” for venetian blinds is the key parameter that influences the progression of temperature changes in the glass panes of a DSF. The outputs of this study help to improve the fire protection design of DSF systems, address various safety and reliability concerns, and provide useful theoretical and practical references.