Abstract:

A 6- story curtain wall fire test platform was built with fabricated steel structure frame. Full- scale experimental studies were carried out to investigate the performance of perimeter fire barrier of glass curtain wall exposed to real- scale fires with fire suppression system both activated and inactivated.Test results showed that when the fire suppression system was uninstalled (or inactivated), the outer laminated glazing panels of the fire room were broken at about 20~23 min, and the temperature at the bottom level of the outer layer of glazing in the upper room reached at about 700 ℃ . The high temperature resulted in outer layer of vision panels of the upper room had some cracks, but the panels did not break and fall out. No flame and hot smoke entered the upper room, which indicated that the perimeter fire barrier between facade and floor could successfully prevent fire spread along the curtain wall and through the gaps. A pendent sprinkler was set 0.9 m away from the curtain wall, for the test scenarios when automatic sprinkler system was activated automatically or manually, the fire near the facade in the burning room was successfully suppressed, and the glazing and aluminum frames were protected. The glazing within the fire room did not break completely or fall out, and the fire did not spread to the upper rooms through the floor perimeter.

Key words: glass curtain wall, interlayer fire protection system;perimeter fire barrier, sprinkler system