Trans. Tianjin Univ.

2008, 14:504-510
DOI 10.1007/s12209-008-0086-7
© Tianjin University and Springer-Verlag 2008

Simulation of the Response of Glass Window

Under Blast Load*
WANG Zhongqi (王仲琦) 1, GONG Guangdong (宫广东) 1,
ZHANG Yanchun (张彦春) 2, BAI Chunhua (白春华) 1
(1. The State Key Laboratory of Explosion Science and Technology, Beijing Institute of Technology,
Beijing 100081, China; 2. China Criminal Police Institute, Shenyang 110035, China)

Abstract：In the investigation of accidental explosion scene, the damage on the glass is one of the typi-
cal traces which can be used to decide the characteristic of the explosion source. To analyze the re-
sponse of glass under the blast load, a numerical model was developed. In the model, the brittleness
glass model was adopted. A ‘node release’ method, which had some special merits compared with the
erosion method was used to simulate the rupture of the glass In the calculation, several problems which
play major role in the response of the glass were discussed. The velocity and the displacement of the
glass fragment were two major factors. The numerical results are very helpful for the design and hazard
assessment.
Keywords：glass; blast load; dynamic response

Glass, one of the most common materials in the rate, crack bifurcation and stop crack, etc[2], have been
construction projects, is almost installed on every build- analyzed in detail. But the researches on the formation
ing and widely used in our daily life. As the accidental and movement of the glass debris are not satisfying. And
explosion or terrorism attack happens, the glass on the there is few good model which can be used to simulate
nearby building will be broken. Glass damage is one of the fragmentation of the glass and the movement of the
the major characteristics in the scene of the explosion. flying glass debris. The method to describe the break-
The flying fragment from the damaged glass windows is down of materials and debris flying is one of the most
also one of the main sources of secondary damage of the difficult problems in fracture mechanics.
accidental explosion, the impact of the glass fragment In this paper, a new calculation method is estab-
will hurt the personnel who is not hurt by the shock lished to simulate the breakdown and debris flying proc-
wave. In addition, the analysis of damaged glass in the ess of brittle materials such as glass. This method has
scene of explosion is also one of the important means to some special merits compared with the erosion method.
analyze the scene of explosion. From the broken glass Firstly, the efficiency of the method is proved by a sim-
window and its location, it is probably estimated the en- ple problem. Then, the fragmentation of the glass under
ergy of the explosive. the blast loading is analyzed in detail and the velocity of
Many researchers have studied the glass destruction the flying debris is recorded. Finally, the numerical re-
process under impact load. Most of them are about the sults from the new method are compared with those
destruction of micro-glass structure, including the de- from the erosion method. It can be easily found that the
struction wave propagation mechanism and the nature of new method is better. The application of this new
the damage layer[1]. The characteristics of crack growth method is significant in the analysis of glass destruction
of glass under impact load, including the crack growth process and the scene of explosion.

Accepted date: 2008-06-30.

* Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.10772032) .
,WANG Zhongqi, born in 1972, male, Dr, associate Prof.
,Correspondence to WANG Zhongqi, E-mail: [email protected].
 WANG Zhongqi et al: Simulation of the Response of Glass Window Under Blast Load

elements. These ‘node pairs’ was set to form the spot

connection. This kind of connection could be destroyed
1 Numerical method
when some criterion was met, such as maximum stress,
maximum strain or others. Then all the elements which
A bomb explosion is a very rapid release of stored
were connected as a group would be released and moved
energy. A major part of the energy is transmitted as
freely by the shock wave. This method can be used to
shock wave at a supersonic velocity. The explosive blast
simulate the formation of crack and the fragment emis-
wave has an instantaneous rise, a rapid decay and rela-
sion easily.
tively short duration. A typical pressure-time curve for
Spot group was modeled with the stress and strain
an explosive blast wave is shown in Fig.1[3].
coupling failure criterion. When the strain, stress or the
combination of strain and stress at each integration
point in the element was beyond the criterion value, the
material would be damaged. The failure governing equa-
tion was defined by
N N N
( rr )2 + ( rs )2 + ( rt )2 +
NrrF NrsF NrtF
(1)
M M T
( rr )2 + ( ss )2 + ( rr )2 − 1 = 0
MrrF MssF TrrF
Fig. 1 A typical pressure-time curve for an explosive where Nrr is axial force; Nrs is shear stress; Mrr , Mss ,
blast wave Trr are failure moment.
Fig. 2 showed the basic concept of this method.
Under the blast load, the material next to the explo-
There were eight spot weld beams which were set among
sion source will endure high pressure, large distortion,
the internal corner points. These beams would rupture
etc[4]. In this study, LS-DYNA3D was used to carry on
independently at different directions so that this method
the simulation computation. The simulation of the crack
had the capability of considering the direction of the
formation and rupture of the material was one of the
cracking.
difficult problems in the computational mechanics. In
the existing literature, few successful methods were pro-
posed in the engineering calculation though some meth-
ods were developed in the academic research, especially
in the dynamics. Many researchers adopted the erosion
method to deal with the material elements which were
damaged. Because the invalidation element was deleted,
this method was unable to provide the effective analysis
to trace the properties of the material elements which (a) Element and spot group
were destroyed. As a result of the mesh division, it would
cause excessive destruction when the size of the element
was not small enough.
1.1 Basic concept of new method
To describe the material disassembly and the
movement of the fragment under the explosive load, the
concept of ‘spot group’ was adopted to connect the nodes
among the elements. In the numerical model, the nodes
(b) Structure of spot group
on each element had their own unique serial numbers.
Fig. 2 Basic concept of spot group method
This was different from the traditional finite element
model in which the nodes between the elements were 1.2 Validation of the new method
common nodes. To assemble all the elements, the ‘node This method had been used in the engineering to
pair’ was constructed from the nodes among the adjacent analyze the broken of the structure under dynamic load.

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Transactions of Tianjin University Vol.14 Suppl. 2008

Fig. 3 showed a simple model for the application of the gradually. At about 100 ms, the bottom surface of the
new method. A simple beam was subjected to the explo- material began to crack as the failure criterion was met.
sive load on the top surface. The degrees of freedom on With the time increasing, the cracks expanded and the
both ends of the beam were restrained. Fig. 4 showed the beam broke completely. The damage process of beam
load curve which was applied to the beam. structure could be seen obviously. The general picture of
the breakdown of the beam was reasonable. The example
showed that the new numerical method is an effective
way to analyze the fracture of the material and has a ca-
pability of describing the fragmentation.

2 Material models
Fig.3 Sketch of simple model
2.1 Glass model
Glass is a kind of brittle material with high elastic-
ity module. In the analysis, therefore, the material type
JOHNSON_HOLMQUIST_CERAMICS was used to
model the glass[5]. This model could simulate the brittle
material destruction process effectively when it was suf-
fered from the high pressure and large strain. The
strength of the material was described by a smoothly
varying function of the intact strength, fractured
Fig.4 Shock-wave pressure curve strength, strain rate, and damage.
The normalized strength is given by
Fig.5 showed the rupture process- of beam structure. σ * = σ i* − D(σ i* − σ f* ) (2)
In the preliminary stage, the plastic deformation ap-
peared in the material at about 50 ms, then the tensile where σ i is the normalized intact strength; σ f is the
* *

stress at the bottom surface of the beam increased normalized fractured strength; D is the damage.
The normalized intact strength and fractured
strength are given by
σ i* = A( p* + T * )N (1 + C ln ε* ) (3)
σ = B( p ) (1 + C ln ε )
*
f
* M *
(4)
(a) 50 ms, plastic deformation
where A, B, C, M, N are the material constants.
The normalized pressure is
*

p = p / pHEL
where p is the actual pressure and pHEL is the pressure at
(b) 100 ms, start to crack
the Hugoniot Elastic Limit (HEL).
The damage for fracture is accumulated and is
given by
D = ∑ ( Δε p / ε pf ) (5)
where Δε p is the plastic strain during a cycle of integra-
(c) 150 ms, crack expand and increase tion and ε pf is the plastic strain to fracture under a con-
stant pressure p.
The specific expression is given by
ε pf = D1( p* + T * )D2
(6)
The hydrostatic pressure is given by
(d) 350 ms, break completely p = K1 μ + K2 μ 2 + K3 μ 3 + Δp (7)
Fig.5 Rupture process of beam structure where K1, K2, K3 are constants ; μ = ρ / ρ0 − 1 .

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 WANG Zhongqi et al: Simulation of the Response of Glass Window Under Blast Load

The model is summarized in Fig. 6, in which it con- The ConWep function includes some factors such as the
sists of the function of strength, pressure, and damage. shock-wave incidence angle, the position of detonation,
the distance between the source and the material etc.
Fig.7 shows the description of the ConWep function.
The pressure equation of state is as follows:

(a) Strength

Fig. 7 Description of the ConWep

The incidence pressure is given by

⎛ t ⎞ ⎛ at ⎞
p1 = pi ⎜1 − ⎟ exp ⎜ − ⎟ (8)
⎝ Td ⎠ ⎝ Td ⎠
The reflect pressure is given by
(b) Damage
⎛ t ⎞ ⎛ bt ⎞
p2 = pr ⎜1 − ⎟ exp ⎜ − ⎟ (9)
⎝ Td ⎠ ⎝ Td ⎠
The pressure load is given by
p = p1 cos 2 θ + p2 (1 + cos 2 θ − 2 cos θ ) (10)
where pi is the maximum incidence pressure; pr is the
maximum reflected pressure; a and b are delay coefficients
of incidence and reflection, Td is detonation time.

3 Results and discussions

(c) Pressure
Fig. 6 Description of the model In the calculation, the initial conditions of the nu-
merical model were from Ref.[7]. The initial conditions
The properties of float glass are shown in Tab. 1.
were: the mass of the blasting explosive was 10 kg; the
Tab. 1 Properties of float glass glass was placed 2 m away from the charge; the size of
RO/(g·cm ) -3
G/GPa A B C M N the glass is 1 500 mm×1 500 mm×10 mm (length×
2.2 30 0.93 0.20 0.003 1.0 0.77 width×thickness). After the test, the glass plate was
D1 T/GPa SFMAX HEL/GPa pHEL/GPa BETA D2 completely staved and splashed.
0.043 0.001 5 0.50 5.95 2.92 1.0 0.85 3.1 Numerical model
The float glass of the general construction was
2.2 Explosive blast wave model adopted in the simulation. The blasting initiation point
The explosive load model uses LOAD_BLAST model was in the front of the glass plate. And all sides of the
in LS-DYNA, in which the ConWep function was used glass plate were fixed so as to simulate the situation in
to simulate the detonation load. This model will save the which the glass plate were installed with the strong win-
computing resource greatly. It has been proved that it dow frame.
will generate good simulation effect on the structure Fig.8 was the configuration of the numerical
response under the load of airborne and the ground [ 6 ] . model of the glass plate and the initiation point.

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Transactions of Tianjin University Vol.14 Suppl. 2008

In the model, isometric rectangular mesh was used. high speed as a result of shock-wave. But if the erosion
The glass was divided into 25 grids along the length and method was used to model the damage, the flying veloc-
the width, 2 grids along the thickness. ity, the displacement as well as the fragment size would
be unable to be traced as the failure element was deleted.
During the breakdown of the glass, the central part
broke firstly. With the increase of the deformation, the
entire glass plate was completely broken and the frag-
ment dispersed along the direction of the shock wave.
Fig.10 showed the locations of the three elements
which were assigned as target points to record the
change of some variables with time. Fig.11 was the time
(a) Glass model
history curves of the pressure of the three elements. It
could be seen that the stress reduced gradually from cen-
ter to border.

(b) Relation of the initiation point and the glass plate

Fig. 8 Glass model and the position of

initiation point

3.2 Discussion
Fig.9 showed the glass staving situation under the
explosive shock wave by the new ‘node-split’ method. Fig. 10 Location of the element
The whole process of the deformation and the fragmen-
tation of the glass can be observed clearly and all infor-
mation about the glass debris would be reserved. In ac-
tual situation, fragment of the glass would deflect at

Fig. 11 Pressure curve of the element

(a) Broken of the middle part Fig.12 showed the time histories of the velocity and
displacement at the target points. It could be found that
the speed of the fragment increased monotonously. Then
the velocity would be stabilized as the fragment attained
the maximum value. The speed at the central part of the
glass was largest. The velocities of the fragments were
beyond several dozens of meters per second which was
potential to cause enormous injury to people[8]. From the
displacement curve it could be found that the displace-
ment increased all times, the reason was that the resis-
(b) Broken and emission process of the glass
tance from the air was not considered. To analyze the
Fig. 9 Glass break process of the spot group method
distribution of the fragments, the model of air resistance

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 WANG Zhongqi et al: Simulation of the Response of Glass Window Under Blast Load

should be included. The target points were also set in the erosion model
to record the change of the pressure and velocity in the
failure elements. Fig.14 showed the time histories of the
pressure and velocity. It showed that the pressure droped
to 0 sharply after the element failure because the failure
unit was deleted. All the relative variables could not be
read at these elements. The mass of the glass was lost.
The velocity of the eroded element was kept a fixed
value. Usually the eroded element did not reach its
maximum velocity, this could be explained by compar-
(a) Velocity
ing with Figs.12(a) and 14(b).

(b) Displacement
(a) Pressure
Fig. 12 Time histories of the velocity and displacement

Fig.13 presented the simulation results of the dam-

age of the glass from the erosion model. The element
would be deleted as some criterion was attained. Com-
pared with Fig.9, the characteristics of the deformation
of the glass plate agreed with each other in general.

(b) Velocity

Fig.14 Pressure and velocity of the

,deleted elements

4 Conclusions

(a) Erosion of the middle part A new ‘node-split’ method was proposed to analyze
the fragmentation of the brittle material like glass plate.
Through the calculation on a simple support beam, it
could be found that the method can model the formation
of the crack in the beam and its breakdown. The poten-
tial capability of modelling the fracture of material was
presented. A calculation was done on analyzing the re-
sponse of glass plate subjected to the blast load. The im-
age of the whole process was reasonable in general.
Compared with the erosion method to model the frag-
ment, there was no mass loss and the accidentally
(b) Erosion and emission process of the glass
Fig.13 Breakage of the glass from the erosion method
unloading as the element was deleted. The ‘node-split’

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Transactions of Tianjin University Vol.14 Suppl. 2008

method was a new method needing more calculations to nology Corporation.

prove its efficiency in engineering in the future. ［5］ Tim J Holmquist, Gordon R Johnson. High strain rate
properties and constitutive modeling of glass[C]. In:
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