Curtain Walls
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
Curtain Walls
Curtain walls are building faades that are designed for keeping out the air and water infiltration; resist the wind and seismic forces acting on the building and its own dead load forces; besides adding aesthetic value to the building. In modern buildings, typically, the outside faade does not support the dead load of weight of the entire structure as in earlier days. So the outside walls can now be lighter, and in most commercial buildings are made of glass for style and beauty.
The curtain walls are generally made of extruded aluminum sections that are connected to the floor or columns to help transfer its own dead load to the main building. The metal sections are filled with various materials like veneers of stone or metal, etc but glass is the most preferred one for the aesthetic value as well as easy thermal control features. By using different types of glass with laminations, glazing and veneers, the architect can control the light and heat inflow and outflow of the building very easily. These walls usually span the whole multi storied building face and also take into account certain essential architectural factors like the thermal expansion and contraction of building materials in different seasons, building sways in high velocity winds or earthquakes, cost of heating and cooling of the interiors, etc.