Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x
DOI 10.1007/s12206-013-0943-8

Finite element simulation of brittle fracture of bulletproof glass system†

Yongki An1,*, Byung Yun Joo2, Dong-Teak Chung1 and Se-Young Choi3
1
School of Mechatronics Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheongan, 330-708, Korea
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, Cheongan, 330-708, Korea
3
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Korea

(Manuscript Received December 26, 2012; Revised July 14, 2013; Accepted July 30, 2013)

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Abstract

The thickness and weight of a bulletproof glass material can be reduced by using strengthened glass that possesses current protective
capabilities. In this study, numerical simulations are performed to estimate the protective capability of strengthened borosilicate glass
used in bulletproof glass systems. High-velocity impacts and perforation behavior are well described by a dynamic brittle fracture model.
A parametric study of the material model of glass is conducted by comparing test results of individual impacts with corresponding nu-
merical estimations; the size of back-surface spall, morphology of perforated surface, and fractured areas are compared. Material parame-
ters of strengthened and non-strengthened borosilicate glasses are determined. Numerical simulations that use a material model consider-
ing these parameters well describe the overall fracture behavior of bulletproof glass. The main parameters that affect protective capability
are initial compressive yield and fracture stresses. The protective capability of strengthened borosilicate glass is ~20% better than that of
non-strengthened borosilicate glass.
Keywords: Bulletproof; Perforation; Impact; Numerical simulation; Glass
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1. Introduction 2. High-velocity steel ball impact test

A transparent bulletproof material consists of several layers
2.1 Experimental conditions
of bulletproof glasses onto which synthetic resin films, such as
polyurethane, polycarbonate, or polyvinyl butyral, are lami- Table 1 shows the mechanical properties of non-
nated. The protective capability of the bulletproof material can strengthened and strengthened borosilicate glass plates [2, 3].
be improved, and its weight can be reduced by strengthening Heat treatment of glass was found to strengthen its static me-
the glass and protective film as well as by optimizing the chanical properties, such as surface hardness and fracture
stacking sequence of the lamination assembly. toughness, by up to ~20%.
The protective capability of the bulletproof material can be Fig. 1 shows the experimental setup for the high-velocity
studied through a finite element simulation by validating an impact tests of a glass plate. Two types of tests were per-
impact test and investigating the influence of the laminated formed. Test A [4] was performed to determine the compres-
film. In this light, this study aims to develop a finite element sive material parameters of the glass plate. A 10 mm thick
simulation model for predicting the protective capability of a steel plate attached to the back face of a glass specimen
bulletproof glass plate as a dynamic brittle fracture material transmits the pressure wave away from the glass plate. As a
[1]. result, the compression wave causes a fracture within the glass
In this study, the material model parameters of heat-treated specimen. In this work, epoxy was used as adhesive. The im-
borosilicate glass as the strengthened material were deter- pact velocity of the steel ball was 200 m/s to 600 m/s, which is
mined by comparing the experimental results (size of back- the common speed of a bullet.
surface spall, morphology of perforated surface, and fractured Test B [4, 5] was performed to determine the tensile mate-
areas) and numerical estimations for high-velocity impacts of rial parameters, such as fracture stress. To investigate tensile
a steel ball onto a glass plate. fracture behavior, Hertzian crack shapes were compared.
Hertzian cracks were experimentally found to be produced by
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 3455 7453, Fax.: +82 2 3455 7329 impact velocities of 30 m/s to 80 m/s. An O-ring was used to
E-mail address: yongki@dwku.com prevent damage at the peripheries of glass specimens and grip
†
Recommended by Editor Yeon June Kang
fixtures. The borosilicate glass specimens had dimensions of
© KSME & Springer 2014
74 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80

Table 1. Mechanical properties and composition of borosilicate glass used as bulletproof glass material.

Property Unit Borosilicate glass Borosilicate crystallized glass

Density g/cc 2.53 2.23
Elastic modulus GPa 64 64
Poisson’s ratio - 0.22 0.22
Hardness (Hv) Kgf/mm2 686 736
Fracture toughness MPa.m1/2 0.7545 1.0779
Composition of material SiO2 B2O3 Al2O3 Na2O, K2O
Composition (wt%) 80.4 13.0 2.4 4.2

(a) Steel ball impact test A (b) Steel ball impact test B

Fig. 1. Experimental setup for high-velocity steel ball impact test of glass plate.

Fig. 2. Experimental results of test A for high-velocity steel ball impact test of glass plate (front section image).

30 mm × 30 mm × 3 mm. crater-shaped fracture around a small spherical ball is also

2.2 Experimental results
Fig. 2 shows the experimental results for test A. Radial
cracks and glass powders caused by fractures are observed. A
observed. As the impact velocity is increased, the diameter of
the crater, radius of the radial crack size, and density also in-
crease. The density and radius of the radial cracks are drasti-
cally reduced in strengthened borosilicate glass.
Fig. 3 shows a cross-sectional image of the fractured glass
 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80 75

Fig. 3. Experimental results of test A for high-velocity steel ball impact test of glass plate (cross-sectional image).

(a) Non-strengthened borosilicate glass 3t (b) Strengthened borosilicate glass 3t

Fig. 4. Experimental results of test A for high-velocity steel ball impact test of glass plate (fracture area).

Fig. 5. Experimental results of test B for high-velocity steel ball impact test of glass plate (front section view).

specimen with radial cracks, lateral cracks, and crater shapes. and penetration depth, was measured as shown in Fig. 4.
The fracture area, given by the product of the spall diameter As shown in Fig. 4, the fracture area was measured to be
76 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80
Fig. 6. Experimental results of test B for high-velocity steel ball impact test of glass plate (Hertzian crack diameter, spall angle).
Fig. 7. Material parameters for simulation model of brittle fracture.
proportional to the impact velocity. The fracture area of
strengthened glass with relatively high hardness and toughness
was decreased to 37% less than the fracture area of non-
strengthened glass. This finding suggests that the hardness and
toughness of the glass are related to the improvement in dy-
namic fracture behavior.
Fig. 5 shows the experimental results of test B. Hertzian
cracks were observed at the spot where the steel ball impacted.
As the impact velocity increased, the Hertzian crack size and
radial crack density increased. Radial cracks were produced in
both strengthened and non-strengthened glass at an impact
velocity of 51.8 and 40.5 m/s, respectively.
The diameters of the Hertzian cracks in the non-
strengthened and strengthened glass were 11.2 and 8.7 mm,
respectively. The angles of the Hertzian cracks in the non-
strengthened and strengthened glass were 115° and 96°, re-
spectively. Hertzian cracks were found to be formed in the
steel ball impact test at an impact velocity of 30 m/s to 70 m/s,
and the Hertzian crack angle and diameter of strengthened
glass were smaller than those of non-strengthened glass.
3. Finite element simulation
3.1 Material model for brittle fracture of glass
Fig. 4 shows a flow map of the brittle fracture material
model of the glass used in this study. The theoretical consid-
erations of the material model were summarized in Refs. [6,
11]. This model was divided into two parts: compressive frac-
ture and tensile fracture models. The compressive fracture
model was divided into the pre- and post-fracture models. In
the pre-fracture model, the compressive yield stress was as-
sumed to depend on the strain rate deformation [8]. In the
post-fracture model, a brittle material was assumed to be se-
verely fractured if a region is subjected to a certain amount of
 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80 77

Table 2. Comparison between simulation and test results.

Property Unit Initial guess Reference Comment

Initial yield stress, Yi GPa 0.5–2.1 [2, 3]
Parameter - Comparison with
Strain rate dependency, B - 0.012 experimental result of test A
study
Compressive fracture - Fractured area
parameters Parameter - Penetration depth
Fracture EQPS - 0.033
study - Strain of steel ball
Slope, λ - 0.5–3.0 [6, 7, 9] - Spall, radial crack, lateral crack
Degradation factor, S - 0.75 [6, 7, 9]
Fracture stress, σfr GPa 0.02–0.04 [2, 3, 10] - Comparison with
Tensile fracture experimental result of test B
Fracture energy, Gc GPa.mm 1.0e-6–1.0e-5 [2]
parameters - Shape of Hertzian crack
Initial crack length, a mm 0.1 - - Density of radial crack
Parameter
Friction parameters Fraction coefficient, f - 0.2 - Penetration depth, fractured area
study
Erosion parameters EQPS 0.2–0.3 [6, 7, 11] - Penetration depth, fractured area

Table 3. Mechanical properties of borosilicate glass used as bulletproof glass material.

Borosilicate
Dynamic brittle fracture material parameters Borosilicate glass
Unit crystallized glass
(estimated by parametric simulation studies) (non-strengthened)
(strengthened)
Initial yield stress, Yi GPa 1.18 1.42
Strain rate dependency, B - 0.012 0.012
Fracture EQPS - 0.033 0.033
Slope, λ - 0.75 0.75
Degradation factor, S - 2.5 2.5
Fracture stress, σfr GPa 0.029 0.031
Fracture energy, Gc GPa.mm 8.89e-6 18.15e-6
EQPS - 0.3 0.3
Initial crack length, Lc mm 0.1 0.1
Friction coefficient, f - 0.2 0.2

Fig. 8. Comparison between simulation and experiment results of the fracture behavior of glass plate (test A results).
78 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80

(a) Non-strengthened borosilicate glass 3t (b) Strengthened borosilicate glass 3t

Fig. 9. Comparison between simulation and experiment results of fractured area (test A results).

Fig. 10. Anti-penetration potential of strengthened glass (simulation results of Test A).

plastic deformation. Therefore, based on damage theory and
granular material theory of a fractured material, the stiffness
of a material would degrade [9].
The tensile fracture model was described by the node sepa-
ration technique, in which element sides and new surfaces
were split under the assumption that all element boundaries
are potential crack paths that use two material parameters:
fracture stress σfr and fracture energy Gc, as proposed by
Ortiz [5, 10].
For all material models, the element erosion technique was
used. Element erosion is a Lagrangian finite element simula-
tion technique that removes elements when the fracture crite-
rion is satisfied or when the element is severely distorted. The
equivalent plastic strain (EQPS) of the element was used as
the present erosion criterion. When the erosion criterion was
satisfied, the element was not removed immediately. Instead,
based on the damage theory, the element stiffness was gradu-
ally decreased to avoid unstable behavior of neighboring ele-
ments [6]. In this case, two material parameters, namely, ini-
tial crack length Lc and fracture energy Gc, were used.
The material model was implemented in the finite element
program NET2D, which is a four-node quadrilateral 2D ex-
plicit Lagrangian finite element code developed by Chung
[11]. NET2D has been verified to be reliable through a com-
parison of experimental and simulation results.
3.2 Simulation results and discussion
The material parameters for borosilicate glass were obtained
through a parametric simulation study. The initial guesses for
the material parameters were based on a literature survey, as
shown in Table 2. Table 2 also shows a comparison between
 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80 79

the simulation and the test results.

References
Table 3 shows the material parameters of borosilicate glass.
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significantly: initial yield stress in the compressive fracture study about damage behavior of glass by oblique impact of
and fracture stress in the tensile fracture. In the case of streng- steel bar, KSME, 25 (5) (2001) 899-905.
thened glass, these parameters were 20% and 6.9% greater, [2] G.-I. Shim, Y.-H. Kim, J.-M. Lim and S.-Y. Choi, Crystalli-
respectively, than those of non-strengthened glass. As shown zation of borosilicate glass with the addition of ZrO2, Jour-
in Figs. 8 and 9, the simulated fracture behavior of non- nal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technol-
strengthened and strengthened glass showed good agreement ogy, 14 (2010) 1127-1132.
with the experimental results. Spall was found on the top sur- [3] N. Bouras et al., Thermal and mechanical characterization of
face of the glass plate, and crack propagation was observed. borosilicate glass, Physics Procedia, 2 (2009) 1135-1140.
As the impact velocity of the ball was increased, the penetra- [4] M. A. Meyers, Dynamic behavior of materials, A Wiley-
tion depth and the number of cracks around the ball increased. Interscience Publication (1994).
Fig. 9 indicates that the simulated fracture area for non- [5] M. Ortiz, Microcrack coalescence and macroscopic crack
strengthened and strengthened glass showed good agreement growth initiation in brittle solids, Int. J. Solids Structures, 24
with the experimental results. (1988) 231-250.
As shown in Fig. 6, the potential improvement in the anti- [6] Hwang, Three-dimensional analysis of dynamic failure in
penetration performance of the glass plate was simulated by high velocity impact using explicit finite element method,
assuming future strengthening over present strengthening. The Ph.D. Thesis, Seoul National University (2002).
impact velocity was increased to 300, 400, and 500 m/s. The [7] B. Joo et al., Finite element simulation of perforation behav-
fracture area was simulated to decrease linearly with the ior of concrete slab by projectile impact, Seventh Interna-
strengthening. Although thinner glass was not simulated sys- tional Symposium on Impact Engineering (2010).
tematically, strengthening the glass was found to enable the [8] A. M. Rajendran, Modeling the impact behavior of AD85
creation of lighter and thinner bulletproof parts. ceramic under multiaxial loading, International Journal of
Impact Engineering, 15 (1994) 749-768.
[9] D. R. Curran, L. Seaman and D. A. Shockey, Dynamic fail-
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(1) Improvement in the protection capability of strength- crack growth in brittle solids, J. Mech. Phys. Solids, 42 (9)
ened borosilicate glass can be simulated accurately by the (1994) 1397-1434.
dynamic brittle fracture finite element technique. [11] C. Hwang, Y. H. Yoo, D.-T. Chung and S. I. Oh, A study
(2) The main material parameters related to the strengthen- on the dynamic brittle fracture simulation, 4th International
ing of glass are initial compressive yield stress and tensile Symposium on Impact Engineering (2001).
fracture stress of the glass material.
Simulations of the bulletproof assembly, including the pro- Yong Ki An received his M.S. degree
tective polymer films, are planned in the future. from the School of Mechatronics Engi-
neering of the Korea University of
Technology and Education, Korea in
Acknowledgment
2013. He has been working as an engi-
This work was supported by the Defense Nano Technology neer at Daewon Kangup, Korea since
Application Center. 2013. His research is focused on nu-
merical simulation of high-velocity
Nomenclature------------------------------------------------------------------------ impacts and perforation behavior of
bulletproof glass system.
σf : Fracture stress
Gc : Fracture energy Byung Yun Joo received his Ph.D.
σ : Compressive yield stress of intact material degree from the School of Mechanical
Yi : Initial compressive yield stress of intact material and Aerospace Engineering of Seoul
B : Hardening constants for strain rate National University, Korea in 2004. He
e& : Strain rate is a professor at the School of Mechani-
e&0 : Reference strain rate cal Engineering, Korea University of
Yf : Compressive yield stress after fracture Technology and Education, Korea. His
λ : Proportionality constants research interests include dynamic frac-
S : Degradation factor ture simulation of brittle material and optical simulation of
LED illuminators.
80 Y. An et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 28 (1) (2014) 73~80
Dong-Teak Chung received his Ph.D.
degree in Applied Mechanics from
Michigan State University in 1986, and
he held a post-doc position at the Uni-
versity of California, San Diego until
1989. He then worked for the Agency
for Defense Development, Korea as a
senior researcher. He has been a profes-
sor at the School of Mechatronics, Korea University of Tech-
nology and Education since 1997. His research activity is
focused on numerical simulation of high-speed impact and
dynamic fracture of ceramic materials and the development of
a hypersonic micro ball impact tester.
Se-Young Choi received his M.S. de-
gree from the Department of Ceramic
Engineering of Yonsei University, Ko-
rea in 1977 and his Dr.-Ing. in Non-
metallic Inorganic Materials from T.U.
Clausthal, Germany in 1990. He has
been a professor at the Department of
Materials Science and Engineering,
Yonsei University, Korea since 1991. His research activity is
focused on bulletproof materials and solid-state electrolytes
for lithium-ion batteries.