Designing, testing, and prototype of aluminium and glass parapets
Area: construction, architecture
Category: desing, engineering, testing
Design of aluminum and glass parapets
The customer needs to design curved and linear parapets in aluminium and glass to be installed on a new, large, and prestigious residence building located in French seafront territory.
The architectural choice is to have balconies with large glass parapets so that the tenants can enjoy the view.
Parapet resistant to the force of the wind
Designing, testing, and manufacturing of aluminium and glass parapets in compliance with the relevant European standards, with impact tests on the prototype of the complete parapet to check its actual resistance.
The need for a slender aluminium load-bearing structure that is nevertheless able to resist the significant action of the wind leads to a smart design of the structural elements and connections, taking into account the architectural harmony while maintaining high engineering efficiency.
Prototype design, verification tests and compliance with regulations
We have assisted the customer from the conception of the prototype to its complete realisation, up to the execution of the resistance tests.
Always acting within the limits imposed by the standards in force (NFP, national adaptation of the EN standards), in collaboration with the architects, we developed the integral structure starting from the anchoring system to the concrete up to the connection details of the modules.
Being located by the sea, the building is particularly subjected to the force of wind. The data on the wind pressure acting on the facades was obtained from a wind tunnel study.
The verification of the structural resistance was carried out by means of a finite element model (FEM) in which the load conditions defined by the standards were reproduced: external and internal wind pressure, force on the handrail.
In order to keep costs down, since these are the most heavily loaded structures, only the portion of the linear parapets was verified by finite element analysis (FEM). The work was then completed by laboratory testing of both linear and curved parapets.