Blast-Resistant Design of a Three-Story Glass Curtain Wall System at a Federal Research Facility

The authors designed a three-story glass curtain wall system for a federal research facility to withstand a blast load of 5.4 psi peak reflected pressure with 28 ms duration. We used WINdow glazing analysis response and design (WINGARD) software for the glazing analysis, and used both single degree of freedom (SDOF) and finite element (FE) analysis methods for the curtain wall blast response analysis. We present a summary of our glazing and structural analysis results of the glass curtain wall system for the specified blast loads, including performance criteria, blast analysis methods, and other blast design considerations for the curtain wall.

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