An Examination of fire spread in multi-storey buildings via glazed curtain wall facades

Winterton House is a 25-storey steel frame building in the East End of London that was reclad with a novel form of vertically restrained, off-the-frame brickwork during the mid-1990s. An analysis of the data obtained from instrumentation installed on the building showed that, in any month, its height varied by between 5mm and 15mm in response to short-term changes in temperature. Although clay masonry is considered to undergo long-term moisture expansion, it was found that the overall height of the building decreased by approximately 10mm over the 3-year monitoring period and, as a consequence, the stress in the restrained brickwork reduced. Modelling of the short-term and time-dependent behaviour of the building suggested that lower values for the creep and irreversible moisture movement characteristics of the clay brickwork were more appropriate than the recommended design values. Details are also given of the brickwork P. R. Bingel, BSc, MSc, PhD, CEng, MICE, FBMS School of the Built Environment, Leeds Metropolitan University A. Bown, BEng, MPhil School of the Built Environment, Leeds Metropolitan University J. J. Brook, BSc, PhD, CEng MIMechE, FBMS School of Civil Engineering, University of Leeds