Investigation of the prestressed beams and glass-window panels at a shopping centre

Abstract

In today’s rapidly changing demands of commercial buildings, designers, manufacturers, contractors, and installers face the necessity to advance their methods, to improve techniques, and generally to stay competitive under all constraints of time, budget, codes and client desires. Building with precast concrete elements provides quick and cost-efficient production, along with flexible, independent interior design. The show-window of the investigated commercial building is divided into several glass panels. Having only upper and lower grip, the glass window panels with very tall heights, are subject to deformation. In order to resist, panels are provided with U-shaped profiles or/ and perimeter rails. The critical points are the glass panels’ support, so the ceiling and floor fastenings have to be very solid, as well as qualitatively superior designed and executed. This paper aims to highlight some relevant aspects regarding the investigation of the metal fixing system designed to connect show-window panels to prestressed concrete ceiling beams at a commercial building.