Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Shock and Impact Loads on Structures

Abstract

Blast attacks may cause significant structural and architectural failure. Due to the relatively weaker strength, glass windows are most vulnerable to blast loadings. Flying shards from fractured windows may lead to significant casualties, while shock wave travels into the room owing to glass breakage may also cause injuries such as hearing impairment and lung collapse. Many researches have been conducted to study window system response to air blast pressure. Different techniques and materials have been introduced to improve glass windows performance against blast loading. Most of those studies are based on field or laboratory tests or simplified analytical solutions. It is in general a lack of a reliable numerical model to simulate responses and damage of glass window systems to blast loads. In the current study, a laboratory test was conducted first to study the performance of laminated glass window system impacted by a wood block at a velocity of 15m/s. Then, a numerical model is developed to simulate window system responses to impact load with the commercial software LS-DYNA. The numerical model is calibrated with the laboratory test results. Using the calibrated numerical model, a series of simulations of laminated glass window systems under different blast loadings are also carried out. The performances of laminated glass window to impact and blast loads are examined.