ABSTRACT
Establishing the “fitness for purpose” of structural and weatherseal sealants during the service life of a building constitutes one of the major challenges to structural engineers, building owners and regulatory authorities. Currently a range of tedious and costly surveys and tests is required throughout the entire life of these structures, involving the deglazing of a required number of structurally bonded units, to obtain structural certification. The cost and inconvenience caused by such protocols are frequently prohibitive and a deterrent to the broader acceptance of structural glazing in various countries, particularly in Europe, Australia and seismically affected areas.
In this paper we analyse new opportunities for significant simplification of some diagnostic procedures. These opportunities are created through the availability of dynamic solids analysers. They require significantly smaller sizes of specimens for the assessment of mechanical properties of materials than the more common mechanical testers and enable the determination of specific properties of materials that can change subsequent to environmental exposure. These “micro-specimens” can further be used for assessing mechanical properties such as Young's Modulus, tensile strength and elongation capacity in real-life sized joints.
