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Home > Resources > Featured Editorial
Safer, Blast-Resistant Glass September 11, 2009
Univ. of Missouri researchers are developing and testing a new type of blast-resistant glass that will be thinner, lighter and less vulnerable to small-scale explosions.
"Currently, blast-resistant window glass is more than 1-in thick, which is much thicker than standard window glass that's only 0.25'' thick and hurricane-protected window glass that's 0.5'' thick," says Sanjeev Khanna, professor of mechanical engineering. "The glass we're developing is less than 0.5'' thick. Because the glass panel will be thinner, it will use less material and be cheaper than what's currently being used."
Conventional blast-resistant glass is made with laminated glass with a plastic layer between two sheets of glass. MU researchers are replacing the plastic layer with a transparent composite material made of glass fibers that are embedded in plastic. The glass fibers add strength because, unlike plastic, they are only about 25µ thick, and leave little room for defects in the glass that could lead to cracking.
The use of a transparent composite interlayer provides us the flexibility to change the strength of the layer by changing the glass fiber quantity and its orientation, says Khanna.
In tests, researchers observe how the glass reacts to small-scale explosions caused by a grenade or hand-delivered bomb. They tested the glass by exploding a small bomb within close proximity of the window panel. After the blast, the glass panel was cracked but had no holes in the composite layer.
"The new multilayered transparent glass could have a wide range of potential uses if it can be made strong enough to resist small-scale explosions," says Khanna. "The super-strong glass also may protect residential windows from hurricane winds and debris or earthquakes. Most hurricane damage occurs when windows are punctured, which allows for high-speed wind and water to enter the structure."
Source: Univ. of Missouri
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