ABSTRACT
Glass is indispensable construction material due to its transparency and smooth, reflective surface providing modern appearance. But together with the visual impression there are many requirements which must be combined in one product. It is particularly safety and protection properties with modern glazing features that could be solar control, low emissivity, noise reduction, structural behaviour and also fire resistance according to the specific application of glass in building. Fire resistant (FR) glass is able temporally protect against smoke, flames and provide temporal thermal insulation. Generally fire resistance of structure has to be proved by furnace testing according to the standard fire curve without losing any of the required criteria (integrity (E), insulation (I), radiation (W) or load bearing capacity (R)) for certain time. This paper is focused on the behaviour of FR glazing under the fire. There are many types of FR glass that are discussed in the first part of the paper. Usual FR glazing height is limited at 3.8 meters in all major global manufacturers (Nevšímal, 2014). For this reason, the second part of paper is dedicated to experiment of FR glazing 4.57 m high and 3.475 m wide which was tested at the furnace in fire testing laboratory PAVUS a.s. in Veselí nad Lužnicí. The test was performed in cooperation CTU in Prague with manufacturer of glazing Nevšímal a.s. The specimen was composed of three glass panes, vertical gaps between the sheets were filled from both sides with fire resistant tape and with glass putty. Thermal response on the unexposed side of specimen was measured by thermocouples and was analyzed by thermographic camera. The unique fire experiment concentrated on frameless glazing exceeding 4.5 m of height was finished in 49 minute by losing the integrity criterion.
