On the bonding between glass and PVB in laminated glass

Abstract

In blast protective design, laminated glass is used to facilitate the safety of building occupants. Laminated glass provides its safety through the maintenance of the bond between the glass and the interlayer, and also through the deformation of the interlayer. The amount of deformation is related to the stretching of the interlayer, which is related to the amount of adhesion between the glass and the interlayer. An experimental and modelling study has been performed on the bond between the glass and the interlayer at different testing rates and temperatures. Tensile tests on cracked laminated glass and pure PVB were performed. These tests were coupled with fracture mechanics methods to calculate a bond fracture toughness. This bond fracture toughness was used to develop a finite element model to predict the separation between the glass and the interlayer. From the experimental studies it was found that the adhesion between the glass and the interlayer is temperature independent in the range of 20 °C–60 °C at a constant testing rate. In contrast, at a constant temperature, the adhesion was found to be loading rate dependent. The finite element model developed has shown for the first time good consistency with experimental data for a wide range of testing rates and temperatures.