Quantifying the Benefit of Venting Glazed Spandrels to Reduce Glass Breakage and Control Moisture
Abstract
While venting glazed spandrels is cited as beneficial to controlling heat buildup, several instances of spontaneous glass breakage in spandrel insulated glazing units, attributed to thermal stress, have been reported. If venting is not an effective solution to reduce thermal stress and there is a need for higher strength glass, are unvented spandrels an option to reduce dirt build up?
This paper covers a field study that includes monitoring spandrel sections with a combination of single- and double-glazing, three different venting scenarios, and both clear- and opacified-glass scenarios. The field data was used to calibrate 3D thermal and CFD simulations.
