Project

The current trend in upper structure automotive design goes towards a larger portion of glass: larger windscreens, slimmer pillars and roof glazing. This is caused by increasing demands and requirements from the customers, both aesthetic (appearance and design) and practical (e.g. improved vision around the car). Thereby, the importance of the properties of laminated safety glass - the glass used in cars - and of the way it is attached (glued) to the rest of the car has increased significantly since it in current (and future) design has a large impact on the overall deformation behaviour of the upper body structure. Furthermore, there are direct legal and rating requirements on e.g. windscreen retention (minimum requirement on how much of the windscreen that must remain attached to the car after a crash) and performance under pedestrian head impact. The purpose of this pre-study is to gain increased knowledge of i) the behaviour of laminated safety glass and its adhesive exposed to significant deformations under dynamic loading conditions and ii) the existing modelling techniques therefore. This is of outmost importance for accurate predictions of the crashworthiness of future car concepts due to the trend of an increasing amount of glass and thereby a prerequisite for improved passive safety.