Upcoming revisions to the 1997 NEHRP Recommended Provisions for the Seismic Regulations for New Buildings and Other Structures (FEMA 302) include first-generation seismic design provisions written specifically for architectural glass components. Scheduled for publication by EEMA in 2001, the 2000 NEHRP Provisions will increase the amount of design attention paid to seismic life safety issues associated with architectural glass components in exterior building wall systems. An "Earthquake-Isolated Curtain Wall System" (EICWS) has been developed and tested successfully in the Building Envelope Research Laboratory at Penn State University. By decoupling each story level of the wall system structurally from adjacent story levels, the EICWS has shown an inherent ability to accommodate large interstory displacements in the vertical, horizontal and out-of-plane directions without jeopardizing life safety or compromising wall system serviceability. Thus, the EICWS has demonstrated an inherent ability to satisfy and exceed, by a wide margin, the proposed seismic design provisions for architectural glass in the 2000 NEHRP Provisions.
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