Sealant Delamination Detection of Structural Sealant Glazing Systems Based on Driving-Point Accelerance

The structural sealant glazing system is widely used in glass curtain wall worldwide. However, due to the aging of the sealants, cracking may form along the sides of the glass. If the panel of curtain wall arises, delamination may occur and induce failure or loss of the system. In order to detect the delamination of the sealant, in this paper, a new vibration-based damage identification method is proposed by using the difference between the predamage and postdamage driving-point accelerance (DA). This detection method would require only one acceleration sensor on a glass panel and a rubber hammer, which operates very conveniently. When the rubber hammer taps the glass panel near the acceleration sensor, the glass curtain wall panel would generate acceleration response which can be measured by the acceleration sensor. The measured acceleration responses will be used to calculate the DA and lead to a new delamination index, called relative accumulative difference of DA, which will give indications on the potential delamination of the sealant. In addition, the influence of the acceleration sensor installation position was analysed by the finite element method, and the optimal sensor location was determined to be at the intersection of the long-side quarter and the short-side quarter. Nine cases on various delamination severities were identified by the new method, as well as the natural frequency reduction and modal assurance criterion. The laboratory experiments showed that the relative accumulative difference of DA is extremely sensitive to sealant delamination. Even if delamination severity was only 6.39%, the relative accumulative difference of DA would be larger than 18%. As the delamination of the sealant progresses, the relative accumulative difference of DA increases, resulting in an effective detection method for sealant delamination of the structural sealant glazing system. The fundamental frequency reduction is suitable to identify relatively large delamination, and the modal assurance criterion of higher modes is also sensitive to sealant delamination.