Performance of glass-ACP façade system in a full-scale real fire test in a G+2 structure

This study presents observations and inferences related to the performance of a façade system of toughened glass and aluminium composite panels (ACP). The fire was initiated inside the compartment and was allowed to grow naturally, break the façade of ground floor, and propagate to the higher floors through the so-called leap-frog effect. It was observed that the glass panels did not break due to fire but fell to ground in intact form due to expansion of the cladding aluminium frame. ACP boards allowed the inner insulation polymer to be exposed to fire and subsequently initiated a small secondary fire at the ground level outside the building. Severe deformation and melting of the cladding aluminium frame was observed as the temperatures went well beyond the melting point of aluminium. It is expected that the observations presented in this study will enable improvements in the fire safety requirements of façade systems.