Experimental investigation on the blast resistance of framed PVB-laminated glass

Abstract

PVB-laminated glass has been widely adopted for building windows as safety glass due to its significant post-crack load bearing capacity. To achieve a better understanding of the mechanical behaviour of framed PVB-laminated glass under explosion, a series of field blast tests were carefully designed and conducted aiming to study the dynamic responses and failure modes of framed PVB-laminated glass subjected to various blast loadings. The reflected overpressure and displacement time histories were measured in the tests. In particular, DIC technology was adopted to record the 3-D deflection field of the glass panel, which is essential for analyzing the dynamic response feature of laminated glass panels under blast loading. Three typical failure modes, i.e. global flexural failure, local punching failure and mixed failure, were identified and corresponding failure mechanisms were analyzed. Finally, the test results were used to check the effectiveness of different design approaches. The results from this study can provide reference for further blast resistant analysis and design for framed PVB-laminated glass.