Performance of cable-supported glass facades under time-depending wind action

Cable supported glass facades are sensitive to wind action because of their flexibility. Conventional laboratory testing to check a facade reliability under the wind action is generally carried out by uniformly air pressure tests. However, the typical wind action on a surface is known to be not uniform because it varies due to building aerodynamics and wind flow turbulence, and this aspect should be properly considered for testing protocols. This paper discusses the structural response of cable-supported glass facades, through time history finite element (FE) analyses, under different wind action combinations that varies based on the building aerodynamics (plan shapes and roof curvatures), the wind direction (0 degrees and 90 degrees), and the glass panel position (up and down). Such a finding is further enforced by the presence of flexible supports for the constituent glass modules. The presented results show a strong dependence of the structural response on the wind action configuration, and thus suggest the need of new testing protocols for similar systems.