Building facades are one of the largest, and most important elements in the overall aesthetic and technical performance of a building. Façade Engineering is the art and science of resolving aesthetic, environmental and structural issues to achieve the effective enclosure of buildings. Façade Engineering has become popular in construction industry as it contributes to about 20% of the total cost of a building. Glazed facades are frequently used in public and office buildings for visual exposure, aesthetics, opacity and environmental compatibility.
Glass facades are becoming popular in Sri Lankan construction industry. Australian, European and British design codes are frequently being used in Sri Lanka to design building facades. The façade engineering team currently focuses on the applicability of the above foreign standards to suit the local conditions in Sri Lanka. Numerical modelling and analysis with finite element software is also an effective tool to study the behavior of building facades under different loading conditions. This research team has done extensive research work in past to investigate the behavior of building facades under blast loading. A similar study can be done to investigate the behavior of building facades under wind, impact and earth-quake loading.
PUBLICATIONS
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2013). Computational analysis of laminated glass panels under blast loads: A comparison of two dimensional and three dimensional modelling approaches. The International Journal of Engineering and Science, 2(8), 69-79.
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2013). Failure analysis of laminated glass panels subjected to blast loads. Engineering Failure Analysis, 36, 14-29.
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2013). Response of a building envelope system to near field blast events. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Structural Engineering, Mechanics and Computation, Cape Town, South Africa.
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2014). Numerical modelling and analysis of the blast performance of laminated glass panels and the influence of material parameters. Engineering Failure Analysis, 45, 65-84.
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2014). Influence of structural sealant joints on the blast performance of laminated glass panels. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities. 29(6). Available at: DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0000646 .
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2014). Design guidance for blast resistant glazing. Journal of Aechitectural Engineering. 21(3). Available at: DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)
AE.1943-5568.0000161.
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2016). Influence of interlayer properties on the blast performance of laminated glass. Construction and Building Materials. 98,
502-518.
• Hidallana-Gamage, H. D., Thambiratnam, D. P., and Perera, N. J. (2017). Blast response of flexible façade systems and the influence of the negative phase. Construction and Building Materials. 154,
462-481.