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Top Glass 2019 seminar – Grading on the curve: A practical approach to evaluating bent glass insulating units

Elie Alkhoury will explain how Can-Best is testing the curved glass for the Crown Sydney Barangaroo at Top Glass 2019. It requires some scaling and new approaches that have never been tried before

Advances in bent glass are inspiring architects to ever-bolder heights of design, but methods for testing and certifying these complex components are still in their infancy. In this presentation, Elie Alkhoury of Can-Best describes his groundbreaking work to assess the design of an overseas landmark building with curved insulating glass units, including assessment of seal durability on full-scale mock-ups. ASTM E2188 was adopted as the basis of evaluation with some bells and whistles added.

The presentation describes the testing of full-scale two-by-four-meter IG panels in all phases of high humidity and weather cycling with dew point measurements taken periodically. In addition to the standard weather cycling parameters of ASTM E2188, wind load pressures were superimposed on the typical cycle and applied in both positive and negative directions. The challenges did not stop there; the test panel was subjected to prescribed bending prior to cycling and assessed in the bent configuration. The complicated setup to test four panels simultaneously will be described.

About the speaker
Elie Alkhoury has been involved on the technical side of the window industry since 1983. He is the founder, president and CEO of Can-Best, but prefers to be known as director of research and testing services for its laboratories. Elie has been actively serving on the CSA A440 Technical Committee for more than 27 years.