EARTHQUAKE-IMMUNE CURTAIN WALL SYSTEM

摘要

A curtain wall system (27') for multi-story buildings that highly resistant to damage caused by multidirectional swaying motions in building frames during an earthquake. In a conventional curtain wall system, each story is connected structurally to the stories above and/or below it. Earthquake induced swaying motions of the building frame cause significant load transfers from story to story and cause such a conventional curtain wall system to be susceptible to earthquake damage. Not only does this damage necessitate expensive repairs, but serious threats to life safety are imposed when debris falls from a damage wall system. In contrast, each story (28') of the earthquake-immune curtain wall system (27') is structurally isolated, or decoupled from adjacent stories by attaching respective panel frames (36) to each story by anchor frames (38). This attachment of the panel frames to separate anchor frames produces the beneficial effects of minimizing wall system damage and the attendant risks of falling debris during an earthquake.