Abstract
Cable-net supported glass facade systems that comprise of pre-stressed cable-net, glass panes and glass support attachments; are commonly used in airport terminals, hotel lobbies, and trade centres. Glass used in building facade presents an aesthetic feature as well as contributes to the structural stiffness of the whole structural system of the building. In this research, the performance of cable-net supported glass facade systems was investigated via experiments and finite element analysis using the Abaqus v6.9 software. Two generic configurations of cable-net system were considered, namely flat and curved cable-net system, both with and without glass panes. For the curved cable-nets, two different curvatures were considered. Each system was subjected to three tests: static, impact and cable anchorage failure test. The results indicated that the glass panes made significant contributions to the stiffness of the whole structural system. The glass stiffness contribution for flat cable-net system was high at the early stage of loading (approximately 30%) but reduced when the load was increased. However, the glass stiffness contribution for curved cable-net increased gradually as the load was increased. For both configurations, the glass stiffness contribution remained steady at about 20% of the whole structural stiffness as the cables in the cable-net stiffened until the maximum load was applied to the system. Based on the static tests, the pre-stress force in the cables in the cable-net systems can possibly be reduced by approximately 50% of the initial pre-stress force; should the glass be considered in the analysis design of cable-net structure. Moreover, the curved cable-net could be designed to have lower pre-stress force in cables compared to that of flat cable-net to meet the deflection criterion of the cable-net structure. Consequently, in the impact test, the glass supported by cable-net structure was deflected at the same level as the cable-net when subjected to impact force. Although the deflection of cable-net is large, the deflection of individual glass was very shallow compared to the allowable deflection of glass pane. Despite the cable-net structure having the capability in reducing the impact force on the glass pane, it has no capability to prevent glass breakage when the impact hit the glass at its edge. Another effect of impact test was the corner node of the cable-net structure had almost the same deflection when the ball bearing hit the glass at the centre of glass facade; although it was found to be very stiff in the static test. The corner node was deflected excessively although the impact was farther from the node. The sudden failure of cable anchorage had no dramatic effects such as progressive collapse or glass breakage even though the cable forces in the curved cable-net oscillated about ±20% of the initial pre-stressed force. Finite element (FE) models were developed for flat cable-nets with and without glass panes using the Abaqus v6.9 software. The FE results were in good agreement with the experimental results with only 1% difference between the two sets of results.