Weathering Evaluation of Structural Silicone Sealants Used in Korea

Super-tall buildings of over 100 stories are coming to Korea. To prove its economic prosperity, which was developed over the last 50 years after the Korean War, Korea is willing to have super-tall buildings as a symbol of its success. Locally, structural silicone glazing has become very common to achieve aesthetically pleasing and high utilization of small land for both residential and commercial building. Because there has been no industry-wide guideline or specification for structural silicone sealants in Korea, it is worthwhile to look at the performance of locally available structural silicone sealants. In this paper, several weathering techniques were adapted from various global industry standards. Artificial weathering using filtered xenon arc radiation was applied to specimens prepared in accordance with ASTM C1135. Comparative evaluations for temperature variations and salt spraying exposure were conducted as well. Silicones in general are known to have excellent resistance to such exposure. However, since the weathering performance of a sealant can be affected by its overall composition (not just the polymer type), some silicone products showed noticeable changes in our testing when compared to their initial properties.