International Scholarly Research Network

ISRN Civil Engineering

Volume 2012, Article ID 949070, 9 pages
doi:10.5402/2012/949070
Research Article
Analysis of Laminated Architectural Glazing Subjected to
Wind Load and Windborne Debris Impact
Mahesh S. Shetty, Lokeswarappa R. Dharani, and Daniel S. Stutts
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO 65409-0050, USA
Correspondence should be addressed to Lokeswarappa R. Dharani, [email protected]
Received 9 June 2012; Accepted 30 July 2012
Academic Editors: X. Li and I. Raftoyiannis
Copyright 2012 Mahesh S. Shetty et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.
During windstorms and hurricanes, architectural glazing is subjected to wind loading and windborne debris impact. Wind-borne
debris is categorized into two types. One is small hard missile like roof gravel and the other is large soft missile representing the
lumber from wood-framed buildings. Laminated architectural glazing (LAG) is the commonly used glazing in buildings where
impact resistance is needed. The prefailure stress response of the LAG due to the combined loading due to wind and windborne
debris impact is studied. Following the ASTM standards (E1886 and E1996), a steel ball with an impact velocity of 39.62 m/s and
a wooden cylinder with an impact velocity 12.19 m/s were chosen to be representative of small and large missiles, respectively. A
lateral pressure that corresponds to a wind speed of 58.11 m/s was used to represent wind loading on LAG. The eect of geometric
and material properties on the stress response of a rectangular LAG is studied parametrically. Thinner outer ply would result in
better prefailure stress pattern than a thicker outer ply, while thicker interlayer generally results in lower stresses in failure critical
areas. The contribution of wind loading to the principal stress is between 510% of the combined stress with small missile case
having higher percentage.
1. Introduction
Architectural glazing is highly vulnerable during wind-
storms, particularly hurricanes, due to wind pressures and
associated wind-bone debris. Hurricane Ike in 2008 provided
a testament to the damage that can result to the interiors
of buildings if the glazing envelope is breached (http://en
.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane Ike). The typical wind load
acting on the glazing during these windstorms can be attrib-
uted to turbulent wind, changes in the direction of wind,
and also its duration. Typical windborne missile constitutes
roof gravel, roof tiles, pieces of lumber, and materials from
damaged structures.
Beason et al. [1] studied the impact of hurricanes on the
glazing damage in the downtown area of Houston, TX, USA.
In their observation, the glazing damage was found to be
mainly due to windborne roof gravel from building roofs
and they recommend using laminated glass for architectural
glazing. Laminated glass consists of two soda-lime glass plies
held together by an interlayer, which is an adhesive polymer.
PVB (polyvinyl butyral) is the commonly used interlayer.
According to Beason et al. [1], the outer layer, which
is exposed to the wind and debris loads functions as a
sacricial ply and is allowed to break, whereas the inner
layer remains intact thus protects the integrity of the building
interiors. Also, the broken glass adheres to the PVB, thus
preventing injury from ying shards of glass. Extensive
eld evidence has been collected after hurricanes and other
windstorms with high-sustained winds and turbulent gusts
from the early 1970s to the present. This eld evidence has
documented the mechanisms of windborne debris transport
during windstorms and how its combined eect with wind
pressures can lead to breaches in the building envelope and
extensive property loss. Windborne debris generated during
severe windstorms varies greatly, depending upon wind
speed, height above the ground, terrain, surrounding struc-
tures, and other sources of debris [2].
Many researchers have studied the eect of wind loads
or windborne debris on laminated architectural glazing.
Flocker and Dharani [36] simulated the low velocity, small
2 ISRN Civil Engineering
missile impact on laminated architectural glazing (LAG).
Their study included stress response of the LAG to dierent
PVB properties and geometry of glass plies [3], fracture
of glass plies [4], interply debonding [5], and the impact
resistance of various LAG congurations [6]. Vallabhan and
Chou [7] studied the stresses and displacements developed
in window glass systems of dierent aspect ratio which
are subjected to static wind load. An iterative procedure
was developed which incorporated nondimensional curves
relating central deections, maximum principal stresses, and
lateral design wind pressures. Duser et al. [8] conducted a
stress analysis and failure probability analysis of laminated
glazing subjected to uniform lateral pressure. Dharani et al.
[9] developed an analytical model to predict the cumulative
probability of damage of inner glass ply due to small missile
impact. The outer ply was modeled as a sacricial ply, and
a subroutine was incorporated in the nite element code
DYNA2D by modifying it to incorporate the Hertz cone
crack propagation in the outer glass ply. The postbreakage
mechanical behavior was incorporated into DYNA2D using
an algorithm subroutine. Ji et al. [10] studied the damage
probability of outer ply due to steel ball impact in LAG
system. The damage probability was found using a nite
element model in combination with a statistical failure
prediction model. Kaiser et al. [11] conducted a series of
experiments using sacricial ply design for LAG to nd
the damage probability of inner ply due to 2 g steel ball
impact. In the case of sacricial ply design the outer ply is
allowed to break. Their [11] study revealed that the thickness
of inner glass ply and PVB has a bearing on the impact
resistance of the inner glass ply. The outer ply has less
eect. Tsai and Stewart [12] studied the stress and deection
characteristics of large plates undergoing large defections
due to wind load through a series of experimental tests
and nite element simulations on glass plates of dierent
geometric conguration. Saxe et al. [13] performed a series
experiments as part of a study to develop the sacricial
ply design concept. The missile (steel ball) size, inner and
outer ply thickness, and type were varied to determine their
eects on the impact resistance of the inner ply. They [13]
concluded that a LAG constructed with heat-treated or fully
tempered inner plies, regardless of outer ply type, would have
better impact resistance than LAG constructed with annealed
glass plies. Saxe et al. [13] listed dierent components of the
laminated glazing in the order of their importance to impact
resistance and they further found that the inner glass ply type
and its thickness were most critical.
Earlier studies report the response of architectural glaz-
ing either to wind load or debris impact separately. Also,
extensive studies have been done to investigate the response
of architectural glazing to small missile impact as opposed
to large missile impact. Dharani and Yu [14] conducted a
limited study of large missile impact, restricted to laminated
glass of circular plate conguration. Since rectangular plate
is the commonly used glazing conguration, a rectangular
conguration is investigated in this study.
The principal objective of the current study is to inves-
tigate impact-induced stress propagation through a rectan-
gular laminated architectural glazing under the combination
of wind and debris impact loading and determine material
and geometric properties that reduce the possibility of inner
ply failure. It is assumed that low-velocity impact is such
that the outer ply does not fracture. Cracks in glass surfaces
tend to open and extend at the location of maximum tensile
stress [3]. Glathart and Preston [15] and Dharani et al.
[16] have already shown for small and large missile impact,
respectively, that the critical area for fracture is the bottom
surface of the inner ply of the LAG. Because sacricial ply
design does not permit fracture of the inner ply, this study in
particular deals with nding the maximum tensile stress at
the center of the bottom surface of the inner ply.
2. Impact ProblemDescription
Windborne debris, as per ASCE building codes [17], has
been classied into two categories based on its mass and
elastic modulus properties with respect to the glass. The
small hard missile represents the roof gravel and the large
soft missile represents timber from buildings and trees. Small
missile impact is of concern at typical building elevation
(>30 ft (9.1 m)), whereas large missiles are of more concern
at lower elevations. As per ASTM standard E1886 [18], a
2 g (0.004 lb) steel ball is chosen to be representative of a
small missile with an impact velocity of 39.62 m/s. From
ASTM standard E1996 [19], three large missile types are
recommended. The missile conguration is as specied in
Table 1. The wind load calculated for the small and large
missile impact is based on the maximum wind speed and
the type of area or surroundings. A wind speed of around
130 mph (58.11 m/s) is considered, and the area is assumed
to be dotted with public utility facilities. It may be noted
that the impact velocities for both types of missiles are
considerably lower than the wind speed. For the large missile,
a circular cross-section is used instead of the rectangular
cross-section specied in the standards in order to make
the problem computationally more tractable. In the case of
large missiles with rectangular cross section, the problem has
to be analyzed for dierent orientations with respect to the
plane of glass. Hence, to simplify the analysis, a circular cross
section is chosen because it is symmetrical about the length
axis of the missile. Large missiles, having both at and round
impacting end, are included in the present study.
The schematic of a rectangular laminated architectural
glazing panel under wind and missile impact is illustrated
in Figure 1. The normal impact of missiles or windborne
debris impact occurs at a velocity V
o
. The laminated panel
is comprised of two soda lime glass layers with a PVB
interlayer. The thicknesses of the outer and inner glass layers
are denoted by h
o
, and h
i
, respectively, and the PVB interlayer
by h
p
. The glazing is simply supported on all sides without
any in-plane end constraints. The loading system involves a
uniform static pressure due to wind load and an impact due
to the wind-borne debris. The loading is done sequentially
with static wind load followed by the debris impact load
rather than superposing the two cases. Ghrib and Tinawi
[20] conducted seismic analysis of concrete gravity dams by
rst analyzing the response of dam due to its weight and
hydrostatic pressure of the reservoir on the upstream wall
ISRN Civil Engineering 3
Table 1: Baseline data.
Parameters and properties
Glass E = 72 GPa, = 2500 kg/m
3
, = 0.25
PVB
G
o
= 1 GPa, G

= 0.69 MPa, = 1100 kg/m

3
, = 12.6 s
1
,
E = 2.5714 GPa, = 0.2857
Steel ball [2 g] E = 200 GPa, = 0.29, = 7800 kg/m
3
Wooden cylinder [2050 g] E
r
= 1 GPa, E

= 737 MPa, E
z
= 14.74 GPa,
r
= 0.39,
z
= 0.036,
zr
= 0.029, = 505 kg/m
3
(Douglas Fir) G
r
= 103.2 MPa, G
z
= 943.4 MPa, G
zr
= 1.15 GPa
Impact velocity Small missile (Steel ball): 39.6 m/s; Large missile (Wooden cylinder): 12.19 m/s
Plate dimensions
Panel area: Length = 1.55 m; breadth = 1.1 m
Inner ply thickness, h
i
= 4.76 mm
Outer ply thickness, h
o
= 4.76 mm
PVB interlayer thickness, h
p
= 1.52 mm
Missile dimensions
Steel ball: R = 3.96875 mm
Wooden cylinder: R = 32.81 mm; length = 1.2 m
prior to earthquake excitation. A similar approach is adopted
here. The interlayer bond is assumed to be perfect with no
debonding or slipping during impact. Flocker and Dharani
[5] have shown that the debonding between glass plies and
the PVB has very little eect on the stress pulse shape and the
peak critical stress in glass plies so the above assumption (no
debonding) should have no material eect on the results to
follow.
2.1. Material Models. In general, the stress tensor for the
impact problem is computed as the sum of deviatoric and
volumetric components

i j
= S
i j
p
i j
, (1)
where
i j
is the stress tensor, S
i j
is the deviatoric stress tensor,
p =
kk
/3 is the pressure, and
i j
is the Kronecker delta.
The glass plies and small missile (steel ball) are modeled
as isotropic, linear elastic, whereas the large missile (wooden
cylinder) is modeled as orthotropic and linear elastic. The
deviatoric and volumetric behavior is given by
S
i j
=

(1 + )(1 2)
+ p

i j
+
E
i j
1 +
,
p =
E

3(1 2)
,
(2)
where, E is Youngs modulus,
i j
is the strain tensor, is
Poissons ratio, and

(=
kk
) is the volumetric strain.
The PVB interlayer was modeled as linear viscoelastic
in the earlier study [3] of laminated glazing. Most recent
work on laminated glazing [21] has shown that PVB can
be modeled as linear elastic by using the short-term shear
modulus G
o
, and bulk modulus, K, to give the elastic
constants, Youngs modulus, E
p
, and the Poissons ratio,
p
,
as
E
p
=
9KG
o
3K + G
o
,

p
=
3K 2G
o
6K + 2G
o
.
(3)
2.2. Design Wind Pressure. The ASCE standards [17] provide
three methods to calculate the design loads, a simplied pro-
cedure, an analytical procedure, and wind tunnel procedure.
In the simplied procedure, the values are directly plugged
from standard tables, which do not require computations as
in the case of analytical procedure. It is applicable for low-rise
buildings only. For analytical procedure, buildings of regular
shape are a requirement. If the buildings are of unusual
shapes, which warrant accurate testing for wind loads, wind
tunnel procedure is used. The design wind pressure, derived
by the analytical procedure, is given by [17]
p = qGC
p
q
i
GC
pi

N
m
2

, (4)
where q is the pressure at height above the ground, G is the
gust factor, and C
p
is the pressure coecient. The term qGC
p
in the above equation refers to external wind pressure acting
on the glazing. The term q
i
GC
pi
refers to pressure inside
the building and is taken to be zero. The gust eect factor
accounts for the loading eects in the wind direction due
to wind turbulence structure interaction. The basic velocity
pressure [17], q, is given by
q = 0.00256K
z
V
2
I, (5)
where K
z
, V, and I denote the velocity pressure coecient,
wind velocity, and importance factor, respectively. The
importance factor accounts for the degree of hazard to
human life and damage to property. The pressure coecient
denotes the actual loading on each surface of the building as
a function of wind direction.
3. Finite Element Modeling
The problem is simulated in nite element code ABAQUS
[22]. The dynamic problem is solved numerically using
ABAQUS EXPLICITwith automatic time step increment and
with contact surfaces dened to prevent penetration. Only
one-quarter of the laminated glass panel is studied due to x-
axis and y-axis symmetry. The mesh is varied to check for
4 ISRN Civil Engineering
Y
X
Z
Outer glass
ply
Inner glass ply
PVB interlayer
Surface subjected
to wind and impact
loading
(a)
V
Steel

Wind load
R
(b)
Wooden cylinder: round ended
2R
(c)
Wooden cylinder: at ended
2R
(d)
Figure 1: Schematic of laminated glazing with dierent missile
types impacting it: (a) 3D prole of laminated glazing; (b) small
missile; (c) large missile with round impacting end; (d) large missile
with at impacting end.
convergence of the maximum principal stress at the center of
the bottom surface of the inner ply of the laminated glazing,
which is the point of interest in this study. The optimized
mesh has 12 elements through the thickness of the laminated
glass panel with ve each for glass panels and two for PVB
interlayer and 100 70 elements along x-y plane across all
layers in the laminated glazing. The meshing is biased that is
mesh becomes ner towards the center of the panel, which is
the impact area. The mesh also progressively goes ne along
the thickness towards the top and bottom layer. No biased
meshing is used for the PVB interlayer. Surface-to-surface
contact is dened at the impact area between the missile and
the top layer to prevent node penetration. Using kinematic
contact algorithm, which ensures no missile penetration
into the glazing, enforces contact between the two layers.
The laminated glazing is modeled using eight-node linear
brick solid elements (C3D8I) with full integration and no
hourglass modes. The missiles are modeled using eight-
node linear brick solid elements (C3D8R) with reduced
integration and hourglass control. These elements dene
bending accurately. The static analysis is initially done using
ABAQUS STANDARD to model the static wind load. The
analysis is continued in ABAQUS EXPLICIT to model the
debris impact with the wind load still applied to the glazing
for the duration of impact. The IMPORT option is used to
transfer the stresses and displacements at the end of static
analysis to the dynamic analysis step. The baseline data used
in this study are listed in Table 1.
4. Results and Discussion
The main objective of this work is to study the stress
response of rectangular laminated architectural glazing to
dierent impact loads, geometry, and material properties
of the laminated glazing under combined loading. Then,
determine the properties that reduce the possibility of
inner ply fracture. Earlier studies report the response of
architectural glazing to wind or debris impact separately. A
large majority of earlier work was restricted to studying the
response of architectural glazing to small missile impact. In
the previous study of large missile impact by Dharani and Yu
[14], only circular glazing conguration was considered for
computational simplicity. Since rectangular conguration is
the most commonly used in windows and no investigation
has been done using this glazing conguration so far, a
rectangular glazing conguration is adopted for this study.
The baseline case is so chosen as to represent a typical
architectural glazing impact situation. The response of the
architectural glazing is studied by varying the thicknesses
of the inner ply, outer ply, and PVB interlayer. This was
done to determine the material and geometrical properties
that reduce the possibility of inner ply fracture and thereby
provide a qualitative assessment of impact resistance of
various LAG congurations. The PVB viscoelastic constants,
the short time shear modulus, G
o
, and bulk modulus, K,
are varied in the ranges 10 MPa1 GPa and 0.35 GPa10 GPa,
respectively. The impact durations for small and large missile
impact are in the range of 10
5
10
3
seconds. PVB behaves
like a glassy solid in this range and hence it is modeled as a
linear elastic material. As a result, long-time shear modulus
G

is not taken into account.

Figures 2 and 3 show the time history plots of maximum
principal stress (
1
) at the center of the bottom surface of
inner ply for small missile and large missiles, respectively.
The stress versus time plots show maximum principal stress
for dierent values of short-term shear modulus of PVB. The
PVB being assumed as linear-elastic, from (3), it is seen that
the value of Youngs modulus increases with the increase in
short-term shear modulus. With higher stiness, the stress
response is lower. This is typical for all the cases studied.
From Figure 2, the maximum peak stress for small missile
occurs at around 1015 s after the initial impact. In the case
ISRN Civil Engineering 5
0
50
100
150
200
250
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s
,

1

(
M
P
a
)
G
o
= 0.25 GPa
G
o
= 1 GPa
Time (s)
Figure 2: Eect of short-term shear modulus, G
o
, on maximum
principal stress on the bottom surface of the inner ply as a function
of time after impact for a small missile impact at a velocity of
39.62 m/s.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
M
a
x
i
m
u
m


p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
Time (ms)
G
o
= 0.25 GPa (at end)
G
o
= 1 GPa (at end)
G
o
= 0.25 GPa (round end)
G
o
= 1 GPa (round end)
Figure 3: Eect of short-term shear modulus, G
o
, on maximum
principal stress on the bottom surface of the inner ply as a function
of time after impact for a large missile impact at a velocity of
58.11 m/s.
of large missile, Figure 3 shows that the peak stress occurs
around 1.52 ms for both at and round end congurations.
The eect of inner and outer ply thicknesses on maxi-
mum principal stress at the center of the bottom surface of
inner ply is shown in Figures 4 and 5. Here, the plots are
generated by varying the thicknesses of outer or inner plies
but maintaining other parameters at their respective baseline
values. The ply thicknesses considered are consistent with the
range of thicknesses tested by Saxe et al. [13]. Both plots in
Figures 4 and 5 show similar trends: a region of high return
for added thickness (or high penalty for reduced thickness)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
Inner glass ply
Glass ply thickness (mm)
Outer glass ply
Figure 4: Eect of inner and outer glass ply thicknesses on
maximum principal stress on the bottom surface of inner ply for
small missile impact at a velocity of 39.62 m/s.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
Glass ply thickness (mm)
Inner glass ply (round end)
Outer glass ply (round end)
Inner glass ply (at end)
Outer glass ply (at end)
Figure 5: Eect of inner and outer glass ply thicknesses on
maximum principal stress at the bottom surface of the inner ply
for a large missile impact at a velocity of 58.11 m/s.
in which maximum principal stresses reduced signicantly
followed by a region where added thickness does little to
further reduce the stress. The stresses for small missile and
large missile with round end are higher when the outer
ply thickness is reduced than in the case of large missile
with at end where the stresses are high upon reducing the
inner ply thickness. This dierence is attributable to the
type of load various missiles impart to the panel at contact
surface. The small missile and large missile with round end
impart concentrated load, while the large missile with at
end imparts a distributed load.
The baseline material properties listed in Table 1 rep-
resent typical values widely used in various analyses and
practices. However, there is a certain amount of uncertainty
in these values. Figures 6 and 7 show the eects of PVB
interlayer thickness on the maximum principal stress for
6 ISRN Civil Engineering
0
50
100
150
200
250
0
1 2 3 4
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
PVB interlayer thickness (mm)
K = 0.35
K = 10
Figure 6: Eect of PVB interlayer thickness on maximum principal
stress at the bottom surface of the inner ply for a small missile
impact at a velocity of 39.62 m/s.
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
0
1 2 3 4
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
PVB interlayer thickness (mm)
K = 0.35 (at end)
K = 10 (at end)
K = 0.35 (round end)
K = 10 (round end)
Figure 7: Eect of PVB interlayer thickness on the maximum
principal stress at the bottom surface of the inner ply for large
missile impact at a velocity of 58.11 m/s for two bulk modulus (K)
values.
three dierent values of PVB bulk modulus. Overall, the
trend is a reduction in maximum principal stress upon
increasing PVB thickness. The eect of bulk modulus is more
pronounced in case of small missile impact than large missile.
For the small and the round-ended large missile cases, at
the higher values of bulk modulus, increasing PVB thickness
for very thin interlayer initially causes an increase in the
maximumprincipal stress before a reduction takes place. The
large missile with at end is insensitive to variation of bulk
modulus values.
Figures 8 and 9 show the eect of PVB material parame-
ters on maximum principal stress. The material parameters
have been normalized with respect to the baseline values
(Table 1). Since the PVB is treated as linear elastic, only
50
70
90
110
130
150
170
190
210
230
250
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
B
a
s
e
l
i
n
e

c
a
s
e
Normalized K, G
o
K
G
o
Figure 8: Eect of PVB properties (bulk modulus K and short-term
shear modulus G
o
) on the maximum principal stress at the bottom
surface of the inner ply for a small missile impact at a velocity of
39.62 m/s.
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
550
600
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s

(
M
P
a
)
B
a
s
e
l
i
n
e

c
a
s
e
Normalized K, G
o
K (at end)
G
o
(at end)
K (round end)
G
o
(round end)
Figure 9: Eect of PVB properties (bulk modulus K and short-term
shear modulus G
o
) on the maximum principal stress at the bottom
surface of the inner ply for a large missile impact at a velocity of
58.11 m/s.
short-time shear modulus and bulk modulus are considered
for the calculation of Youngs modulus and Poissons ratio.
The eect of bulk modulus is more pronounced in the case
of small missile impact than large missile with round end.
There seems to be no eect on large missile with at end.
The eect of short-term shear modulus is seen in both small
missile and large missile with round end clearly where as for
large missile with at end it is sensitive only at lower values.
In case of small missile impact, for better impact resistance, it
is better to have properties of bulk modulus and short-time
shear modulus having two orders of magnitude lower than
baseline case.
ISRN Civil Engineering 7
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
100 50 150 200 250 300 350 400
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s
Outer glass ply
Inner glass ply

1
, principal stress along the LAG centerline (MPa)
PVB interlayer
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
= 10 MPa
= 1 GPa
G
o
G
o
Figure 10: Maximum principal stress distribution through the
thickness of LAG at its center for small missile impact at a velocity
of 39.62 m/s.
Wei et al. [23] had studied the stress distribution through
the thickness of laminated glazing subjected to blast loading.
They observed that the stress distributions on the outer
and inner plies are parallel but not collinear for low values
of G
o
but becomes collinear as the G
o
value increases.
Even though the maximum principal stress in the inner ply
determines whether an LAG meets the sacricial ply design
requirement, it would be of interest to establish the stresses
in the inner and outer glass plies at the glass/PVB interfaces
as well as through thickness stress variation to ascertain that
there are no anomalies. The maximum principal stress was
determined at the LAG centerline (x = 0, y = 0) for various
values of coordinate z (axis system shown in Figure 1) for the
three missile cases. Figures 10, 11, and 12 showthe maximum
principal stress distribution in the z-direction, for high
(10 MPa) and low (1 MPa) short-term shear moduli, along
LAG centerline for the small missile impact and the large
missile with round and at end conguration, respectively.
Though the stress distribution is not linear through the
thickness of inner and outer glass plies, a parallel oset
between the stress distribution in the inner and outer glass
plies for low values of G
o
is observed.
This study so far dealt with missiles made of steel or
wood. It is a common knowledge that the range of mate-
rials forming windborne debris varies widely. The debris,
for example, could include pieces of roof shingles, glass
fragments, steel nails and bolts, sand, metal rods, and pipes
to name a few. In an attempt to assess the eect of missile
material, the maximum principal stress was determined for
small (spherical ball) and large missiles (cylindrical rod)
made of dierent materials. Figure 13 shows the eect of
mass density of debris on the principal stress at the bottom
of the inner ply of laminated glazing. The mass density was
normalized with respect to baseline mass density. For the
small missile case, the normalized mass density P is given by
200 100 0 300 400 500 600 700 800
Outer glass ply
PVB interlayer
Inner glass ply
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1

1
, principal stress along the LAG centerline (MPa)
= 10 MPa
= 1 GPa
G
o
G
o
Figure 11: Maximum principal stress distribution through the
thickness of LAG at its center for large missile impact at a velocity
of 12.19 m/s glazing for large (round end) missile impact.
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
Outer glass ply
Inner glass ply

1
, principal stress along the LAG centerline (MPa)
= 10 MPa
= 1 GPa
PVB interlayer 0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
N
o
r
m
a
l
i
z
e
d

t
h
i
c
k
n
e
s
s
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
G
o
G
o
Figure 12: Maximum principal stress distribution through the
thickness of LAG at its center for large missile impact at a velocity
of 12.19 m/s glazing for large (Flat end) missile impact.
P = (mass density of the missile)/(mass density of steel). For
the large missile case, the normalized mass density P is given
by P = (mass density of the missile)/(mass density of baseline
wooden missile). The density range considered for small
missile is between 2,660 kg/m
3
(granite) to 17,000 kg/m
3
(tungsten). In case of large missile, which is wood, the
density varies between 200 kg/m
3
to 1,100 kg/m
3
. The mass
densities of light Douglas r, which is about 505 kg/m
3
and
that of steel, which is about 7,800 kg/m
3
, fall within the
range of densities considered in this study. For a completely
elastic impact, the maximum interface force and hence the
8 ISRN Civil Engineering
Large missile with round end
Large missile with at end
Small missile
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

1
=

1
=
(442.69)P
0.3826
(233.84)P
0.4424
M
a
x
i
m
u
m

p
r
i
n
c
i
p
a
l

s
t
r
e
s
s
,

1

(
M
P
a
)
Normalized mass density, P

1
= (0.9634)P
0.5623
Figure 13: Eect of debris mass density on maximum principal
stress at the bottom surface of the inner ply. Normalized mass
density = (missile mass density)/(missile baseline density).
maximum expected stress is proportional to P
3/5
[20]. From
the power law t equations in the gure, it can be seen that
the small missile closely conforms to elastic impact, whereas
large missile does not.
5. Conclusion
The main objective of this study was to study the stress
response of rectangular laminated architectural glazing sub-
jected to dierent impact loads in the presence of wind
pressure. In particular it was to study the eects of geom-
etry and material properties of the laminated glazing and
determine the properties that reduce the possibility of inner
ply fracture. The results provide a qualitative assessment of
impact resistance of various LAG congurations based on
the sacricial ply design concept in which the inner glass
is not allowed to fracture. Thinner outer ply would result
in better prefailure stress pattern than a thicker outer ply.
A thicker (PVB) interlayer generally results in lower stresses
in failure critical areas. The contribution of wind loading to
the principal stress is between 510% of the combined stress
with small missile case having higher percentage. There is a
similarity between stress responses of an LAG subjected to
small missile impact and a large missile with round end. This
is attributed to the nature of loading imparted by these two
missile types on the LAG. This work serves as a precursor for
the study of failure probability of inner ply of an LAG due to
similar loading conditions.
Notations
E: Youngs modulus
: Poissons ratio

i j
: Stress tensor
S
i j
: Deviatoric stress tensor
p: Pressure

i j
: Kronecker delta

i j
: Strain tensor

i j
: Deviatoric strain rate
G(t): Stress relaxation modulus
G
o
: Short-term shear modulus
q: Pressure at height above the ground
G: Gust factor
C
p
: Pressure coecient
K
z
: Velocity pressure co-ecient
V: Velocity of wind
I: Importance factor.
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