New Type Of Glass Resists Small Explosions

The blast caused the glass panel to crack, but didn’t puncture the composite layer.
 
Blast-resistant glass windows are often installed in federal buildings and other vulnerable structures as a safety measure against potential terrorist attacks. However, they are thick and expensive to manufacture.
 
“The glass we are developing is less than one-half of an inch thick. Because the glass panel will be thinner, it will use less material and be cheaper than what is currently being used.” said Sanjeev Khanna, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri University.
 
Conventional blast-resistant glass is comprised of a layer of strong plastic sandwiched between two sheets of laminated glass. The new design is built stronger and thinner by replacing the plastic layer with a transparent composite material made of glass fibers embedded in plastic. The glass fibers are only about half the thickness of a typical human hair (25 microns), and leave less room for defects in the glass that could lead to cracking.
 
Read more story here.