Fractional viscoelastic characterization of laminated glass

Abstract

Abstract. Glass façades are often required to withstand against explosive events due to premeditated or accidental causes. Laminates made by glass plies bonded by thin polymeric foils (laminated glass) need to be used to avoid catastrophic breakage. The paradigmatic case study considered is that of a rectangular three-layer laminate, made of two glass plies, modelled as Kirchhoff-Love plates, sandwiching a thin viscoelastic polymeric interlayer. Its time-dependent response under the action of a blast wave is described via fractional calculus operators, whose main advantage is that only two material constants are needed for an exhaustive characterization. The dynamic equations are treated à la Galёrkin and their integration in time relies on the Grünwald-Letnikov approach. The fractional characterization presents noteworthy advantages from a computational point of view. We find that the maximum stress peak is mildly affected by the viscosity of the interlayer, which instead dictates the subsequent rebounding oscillations.