DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCT AND SYSTEM

PERFORMANCE TESTS (CSTB NANTES May 2004) Sunscreens are unusual façade products. First of all,they can be arranged in different ways in relation tothe building (offset with respect to a façade, in front of a picture building window, in a corner, on a terrace, etc.). In addition, these elements present a degree of porosity to wind. This may generate turbulence phe-nomena.In order to assess the effects of wind on the Shamal system, a series of tests was conducted in May 2004 in the Jules Verne wind building tunnel of CSTB in Nantes. These tests were conducted on a model built to ascale of 1/1.The CSTB wind generator can simulate wind speeds in excess of 200 kph (hurricane). The experimental results show that the SHAMAL sys- tem stands up to winds of 244 kph without sufferingany particular damage, even in the least favourableconfiguration (no wall or façade behind the sunscreens). During these trials, the aero-acoustic behaviour of the system and its resistance to hail were also tested. The SHAMAL system suffered no damage after a vio-lent hailstorm (shower of hailstones propelled at 65kph for 7 min.). Acoustic measurements showed that the effect of wind on the SHAMAL system generates no noise within the range of everyday wind speeds (v<50 kph).All these results are cited in a report by CSTB Nantes(EN-CAPE 04-078 C – V0) and are obtainable on request from Terreal. Head office of OPAC, Clermont-Ferrand, France. building architect: Sextan

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