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As a particle impacts a windshield, it transfers kinetic energy which can cause stress and potentially fracture the glass layers. The critical energy release rate and fracture stress of each material must be considered to determine if and how the energy propagates through the glass-plastic-glass structure. The plastic layer is designed to absorb residual energy and prevent fractures in the last glass layer.

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13 views

Report Part

As a particle impacts a windshield, it transfers kinetic energy which can cause stress and potentially fracture the glass layers. The critical energy release rate and fracture stress of each material must be considered to determine if and how the energy propagates through the glass-plastic-glass structure. The plastic layer is designed to absorb residual energy and prevent fractures in the last glass layer.

Uploaded by

Edwin Diaz
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Fracture Mechanics – Part C

As the particle gets in contact with the windshield, it transfers its kinetic energy to the first glass layer.
Depending on the mass, shape, and velocity of the incident particle as well as the impact time, a specific
stress is applied to the windshield.

According to the Griffith method (Equation below), which is focused on the global energy balance, the
energy release rate, or the driving force (G) must be larger than the surface energy required to break the
material (Gc) for fracture to happen. Using G c – critical energy release rate (material property), a fracture
stress can be obtained. By comparing the stress provided by the incident particle and the fracture stress,
it can be determined whether the windshield will fracture or not. At the same time, one can determine
the energy release rate produced by a given stress and compare it to the critical energy release rate to
determine whether fracture occurs or not.

Because the windshield is composed of a glass-plastic-glass interface, further analysis must be


performed to fully understand how the particle impact energy is transferred among the windshield
layers. Most of the energy is absorbed by the first glass layer as this energy is dissipated in the form of
cracks (initiation and propagation). The plastic layer acts as further protection, due to its greater
capacity to deflect the residual energy after the first layer interface fracture, as it is an elastic material as
mentioned before. The purpose of this layers is to prevent the last glass layer to fracture and
endangered the passengers inside by reducing most or all of the energy received from the impact, so it
is of great importance to properly design this multi-layer composite.

The equation below can be used to describe this. As it is observed, as the energy release rate decreases
so does the fracture stress needed. If in fact the first layer completely fractures (meaning that it cannot
hold the amount of specific energy exerted), the second plastic layer will absorb the residual energy and
depending on how much, cracks can initiate or further propagate until the Gc of plastic is reached
causing energy to further dissipate to the last glass layer (which of course is not desired).

GE
σ f=
√ πa
In addition, the stress intensity factor can also be used to explain the situation. The equation below
shows the relationship between K and G, where K is equal to σ √ πa . The model chosen was model III,
as the load is perpendicular to the surface, in this case the windshield. In here, by knowing the critical
energy release rate (Gc), the critical stress intensity factor K c can be obtained to perform the same
procedure describe before (finding a critical stress or crack size).

K2
G=
E
Moreover, this behavior can also be explained using the R-curve. As shown below, (b) represents the
curve for ductile materials (plastic) and (a) represents the curve for brittle materials (glass). The R-curve
for brittle material is constant, however, for ductile ones the R-curve is rising with increasing crack size
(the larger the crack the more unstable the crack growth will be) indicating that less stress is needed to
crack the glass layer than the plastic one and that a decrease in crack size stables crack propagation,
which is a good sign as most of the energy is absorb by the first layer, giving more confidence that the
last glass layer will remain on a safe condition.

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