PNNL

Abstract

Continuum damage mechanics based constitutive model is used to study the stone-impact resistance of automotive windshields. An axisymmetric finite element model is created to simulate the transient dynamic response and impact induced damage tensors for laminated glass layers subject to stone-impact loading. The windshield glass consists of two glass outer layers laminated by a thin poly-vinyl butyral (PVB) layer. The constitutive behavior of the glass layers is simulated using continuum damage mechanics model with linear damage evolution. The PVB layer is modeled with linear viscoelastic solid. The model is used to predict and examine damage patterns on different glass surfaces for different windshield designs including variations in ply thickness and curvatures.