Why are there glass skyscrapers in earthquake territory?
In San Francisco, the Salesforces building has many glass windows. Won’t the glass break during an earthquake and fall on pedestrians on the street. Do engineers expect the glass not to break during an earthquake?
In: 5
The mounting systems almost always have a sufficient amount of flex to them; expansion joints between panes, flexible seals and such. They aren’t rigidly held in place like a normal house window. Keep in mind that skyscrapers everywhere will flex and expand/contract under windy conditions or hot/cold weather; earthquakes aren’t that much different as far as windows are concerned. On top of that, the panes are laminated like bullet-proof glass such that when panels do break (usually from something hitting them), they’re still held in place to prevent them from falling. So they’re designed to not break from building movement, and even if they do break, they’re designed to do so safely.
It’s much better than having stone/concrete exteriors. NYC has the permanent scaffolds in front of so many buildings to protect pedestrians for when pieces of a facade of a building does drop off. Instead, newer buildings tend to be completely covered in windows that fail in a safe manner. Not to mention that glass is more weather resistant over time than the stone/concrete facades.
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