Conception and Assessment of Technical Solutions for the Application of Vacuum Glazing in Contemporary Window Constructions

Abstract

Vacuum glazing products have been seen for some time as a potential alternative to multi-layered insulation glass assemblies. Recently, industrialized production of vacuum glazing has become more common. It is thus likely that in the near future such products would be more frequently deployed in the building sector. While past research efforts mainly focused on the development of the vacuum glass itself, few studies have addressed the construction detailing aspects that need to be considered for windows equipped with vacuum glazing. The present contribution documents the workflow and findings of an ongoing research project, focusing on the design and construction of windows with vacuum glazing. Thereby, multiple aspects of the performance of different frame constructions were taken into consideration. To assess the thermal performance, a two-fold approach was followed: On the one hand, knowledge from previous studies of historic window constructions and their retrofit with vacuum glazing was utilized. On the other hand, numeric thermal bridge simulation was deployed to analyse different frame designs resulting in values of key performance indicators. The contribution reports on i) the challenges of information acquisition for generation of vacuum glazing models for thermal bridge simulation, ii) the behaviour of various frame design alternatives. The results support a systematic assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of vacuum glass window constructions.