High Performance Curtain Wall Mullion Section Design with Various
Densities of Gyroid

Min Jeong Kang
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree of Master of Engineering in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
September 2016

The thermal bridge problem in building facades has become a topic of interest as the energy performance of building enclosure design required improvements with a global lead in sustainable building design. Curtain wall facade systems are widely used for recent high-rise buildings, and the thermal bridge issue occurs mainly within the aluminum frame of the curtain wall system.

In addition to the thermal bridging effects, the conventional curtain wall facade designs have limitations in increasing the stiffness of the mullion. As to address the lack of an innovative solution to solve both issues, this thesis proposes utilizing a cellular structure in mullion design. In particular, this thesis by Min Jeong Kang, has selected a single-gyroid structure, which is an open cell foam structure that has the minimum surface area necessary to span a region of space.

The thesis explores various aspects of the application that extend from a rapid modeling method of gyroid structure, experiments, and simulations along with theoretical values for mechanical and thermal properties of gyroid, to topology optimization of the various densities of gyroid in the composite structure. The results are expected to improve the curtain wall designs with future experimental verifications.