Using a Full-Scale Mock-Up of Skylight to Evaluate Its Performance Following Standards Criteria

Rainwater may penetrate through the cladding, enter the wall assembly, and cause damage to the façade components and interior finishes, which are moisture sensitive, most of the time. In the current paper, the performance assessment of a skylight with a full-scale mock-up has been evaluated. The mock-up was erected for an actual project to verify the acceptance criteria for the skylight's technical, functional, and architectural details. The test was conducted at the Aluminum Technology Auxiliary Ind. (ALUTEC) facility in the Industrial Zone, Doha, Qatar. The fabricated full-scale mock-up has a rectangular plane configuration of 6.625 m (length) by 3.315 m (width) that belongs to a skylight measuring 36 m by 18 m. The ASTM E283, ASTM E331, and ASTM E330 standards were followed during the experiment. Air infiltration/exfiltration, static water penetration, structural performance, post-structural static water penetration, and structural proof loading tests were performed in an airtight chamber. After recording the residual displacements, the test findings for all the make-up components, namely steel tubes, glass, and aluminum sandwich panels, were determined and found within acceptable limits.