International Journal of Crashworthiness

ISSN: 1358-8265 (Print) 1754-2111 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/tcrs20

Crack analysis in PVB laminated windshield

impacted by pedestrian head in traffic accident

Jun Xu & Yibing Li

To cite this article: Jun Xu & Yibing Li (2009) Crack analysis in PVB laminated windshield
impacted by pedestrian head in traffic accident, International Journal of Crashworthiness, 14:1,
63-71, DOI: 10.1080/13588260802462427

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13588260802462427

Published online: 24 Mar 2009.

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International Journal of Crashworthiness
Vol. 14, No. 1, January 2009, 63–71

Crack analysis in PVB laminated windshield impacted by pedestrian head in traffic accident
Jun Xu∗ and Yibing Li
State Key Lab of Automotive Safety & Energy, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
(Received 21 July 2008; final version received 27 September 2008)

A damage-modified nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive relations model of PVB laminated windshield is suggested based
on updated Lagrangian method to study the crack evolutions on windshield plate subject to pedestrian head. After verified
by a classical example, the constitutive relations are implemented into FEA software. With proper material properties,
the FEA model describing the pedestrian head impact with vehicle windshield in traffic accident is established. The
computation results of FEA model and classical Hertzian pressure model are in good agreement. Moreover, the FEA
model is used to analyse the internal stresses. Shear stress, compressive stress and tensile stress are main causes of plastic
deformation, radial cracks and circumferential cracks, respectively. Internal stresses decrease as the distance away from the
impacted point increases. In addition, parametric studies were carried out to study the effects of Poisson’s ratio and impact
velocity.
Keywords: Cracks analysis; PVB laminated windshield; constitutive relations; internal stress; impact

1. Introduction
In pedestrian-vehicle accidents, head is the most vulnerable
part to be hurt among all the body regions [12]. According to
the statistics in studies of Ballesteros et al. [2], injuries, the
distribution of different body regions for different vehicle
types are shown in Figure 1.
A total of 537 pedestrian-vehicle accident cases are
selected from National Traffic Accident Database of
Tsinghua University (NTADTU). Locations that impact
with pedestrian head and cause pedestrian death are mainly
windshield, engine hood and ground. The distributions of
the locations are illustrated in Figure 2. From Figures 1 and
2, it can be safely concluded that any attempt to improve
the pedestrian protection ability or well investigate the
traffic accident details need thorough understanding of
crack initiation and growth in PVB windshield subject to
pedestrian head impact.
According to its excellent energy-absorbing and
fragment-holding ability, PVB (Polyvinyl Butyral) wind-
shield is now widely used in automobiles [5]. Static or
quasi-static indentation on brittle material loaded by a
spherical indenter has long been studied since Hertz’s pi-
oneering work [9]. Numerous experimental studies were
performed for determining the system of cracks in glass in-
volved by contact loading, including the effects of loading
rate [1,8,13,17,19,25].
A surface ring crack formed at the circumference of
the contact area, followed by a cone crack extended into
the structure, is generally observed in Hertzian indentation
[31]. Multiple ring cracks may occur as the contact area
or contact force increases [18]. The initiation and propa-
gation of each crack is dependent on the type of the glass
[1]. The characteristic damage pattern mainly falls into two
categories. Cone cracks are firstly initiated while median
cracks nucleate after loading in first group whereas nucle-
ation of radial and lateral cracks appear only when unload-
ing the sample, at about half of the maximum load and
just prior to complete unloading respectively in another
group [11,13].
Previous researches that focused on glass damage
mechanism and crack growth are mainly applied by
three methods: experiment and tests of impact between
sphere and glass plate, theoretical equations describing the
failure criteria of glass under load and numerical simula-
tions of crack initiation and growing. Experimental descrip-
tions of fracture in glass are the ways and methods employed
most [11]. A good deal of data have been obtained through
various kinds of tests and universal phenomena are sum-
marized [16]. Prediction of crack initiation was considered
comparatively successful based on the maximum failure
stress [20]. However, prediction of crack propagation us-
ing the initial stress field may fail due to the quick change
of the stress field as the cracks grow in glass plate [10,14].
Therefore, numerical simulation is an ideal method to study
the damage mechanism of glass under impact. Flocker and
Dharani [7] conducted finite element analysis (FEA) to in-
vestigate the crack propagation path based on the experi-
mental observation. A numerical simulation of a glass plate

∗
Corresponding author. Email: xujun06@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
ISSN: 1358-8265
Copyright 
C 2009 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/13588260802462427
http://www.informaworld.com
64 J. Xu and Y. Li

Below knee At knee

Below knee
22.92% 2.29%
At knee 12.31%
2.53% Above knee a
c c
Head 14.22%
Above knee a Head
14.92%
11.33% Head b b 12%
Upper extremity Head
30.98% TBI d 12.00% TBI
d
31%
Upper extremity 12.92% 15.03%
10.73% Spine
Neck Face 7.30% Face
Neck
Spine 0.13% 3.13% 2.91%
Abdomen 0.31%
5.46%
Thorax 9.28% Thorax
Abdomen 10.06% 12.86%
5.86%

(a) Conventional vehicle (b) SUV/pick ups

Figure 1. Non-superficial pedestrian injuries to body regions by vehicle type. a: Parts above knee in lower extremity. b: All head injuries
except superficial ones. c: Non-brain head injuries. d: Traumatic brain injuries.

subjected to static indentation by a spherical indenter was 2. Constitutive relations

carried out and the results showed good agreement with the 2.1. Description of problem
test results in literature [11]. An element-failure approach
Pedestrian head impacts on the vehicle PVB windshield
that avoids the node splitting and the associated re-meshing
can be regarded as a scenario where a composite plate is
is used in Yuqing’s study [31].
subjected to a concentrated force by a spherical indenter
However, previous studies did not establish a proper
on its top surface, shown in Figure 3. The composite plate
constitutive relations model neither for common soda-lime
glass nor for PVB laminated glass that confines studies
into less insightful ones. In addition, cracks of PVB wind-
shield in pedestrian-vehicle traffic accident are never stud-
ied thoroughly. In our study, a damage-modified nonlinear
viscoelastic constitutive equation is firstly developed based
on the updated Lagrangian approach. Secondly, describing
the impact between pedestrian head and PVB laminated
windshield, a FEA model with proper material parameters
verified by a classical example is established. Further, in-
ternal stresses of the cracks are studied. Poisson’s ratio,
distance from the crack edge to impacted point and impact
velocity are parametrically studied, respectively.

Mirrior
3.07%

Ground A-pillar
24.73% 3.79%

Windshield
42.78%

Engine hood
25.63% Figure 3. (a) PVB windshield crack morphology in real-world
pedestrian-vehicle accident. (b) Schematic illustration of a sphere
Figure 2. Different locations of head impact. pedestrian headform impacting on a windshield glazing.
 International Journal of Crashworthiness 65

consists of n = 2 individual brittle soda-lime glass layers On the basis of updated Lagrangian virtual work
of thickness tg and modulus Eg , sandwiched with a PVB method, stress-strain relations of material that undergoes
interlayer of thickness tP and modulus EP . large deformation with the ignorance of physical nonlinear
properties can be regarded as [15]:

2.2. Constitutive relations t
∂ {ekl }
{sij } = E (t − τ ) [A] dτ (9)
Dynamic impact and quasi-static tensile experiments were 0 ∂τ
performed by Lili et al. [21,22] to study the mechanical
behaviour of polymer. According to the experimental re- and:
sults, the behaviour of the polymer can be described as the
1−ν
following constitutive relation: [A] =
(1 + ν) (1 − 2ν)
⎡ ⎤
σ = σe + σt1 + σt2 (1) 1 ν
(1−ν)
ν
(1−ν) 0 0 0
⎢ ν 1 ν
0 0 0 ⎥
⎢ (1−ν) (1−ν) ⎥
where ⎢ ν ν
1 0 0 0 ⎥
⎢ (1−ν) (1−ν) ⎥

  ⎢ 1−2ν ⎥ . (10)
⎢ 0 0 0 0 0 ⎥

n
(mε)t ⎢ 2(1−ν) ⎥
σe = σm 1 − exp − (2) ⎣ 0 0 0 0 1−2ν
2(1−ν)
0 ⎦
i=1
t 0 0 0 0 0 1−2ν
2(1−ν)
  
t
t −τ
σt1 = E1 ε̇ (τ ) exp − dτ (3) Similarly, as PVB windshield is a three-dimensional
0 θ1
 t   structure, Equations from (1) to (6) can be rewritten as
t −τ [26,28,30]:
σt2 = E2 ε̇ (τ ) exp − dτ (4)
0 θ2
sij = sij,e + sij,t1 + sij,t2 , (11)
Nevertheless, the above constitutive relations are only
valid when strain is less than 7% [22]. To further utilize the where
above relations, Fenghua et al. [6] suggested the following 

equation to describe the constitutive relations: 
n
(mEij )t
sij,e = σm 1 − exp −mAEkl − (12)
t=2
t
σ = (1 − D) (σe + σt1 + σt2 ), (5)   
t
∂Ekl t −τ
sij,t1 = E1 exp −
A dτ (13)
where D is a ‘damage’ variable and is defined as: 0 ∂τ θ1
 t  
∂Ekl t −τ
0 ε ≤ εth sij,t2 = E2 A exp − dτ (14)
D= . (6) 0 ∂τ θ2
Ḋ0 ε̇δ−1 (ε − εth ) ε > εth
On the basis of Boltzmann superposition [33], incre-
The dynamic damage criterion is put forward: mental form of constitutive relations can be obtained. Also,
implementation in commercial FEA software needs the in-
Df = Ḋ0 ε̇δ−1 (ε − εth ) (7) cremental form of the stress tensor of Equations (12)–(14)
to be rewritten. Thus, it is a must for us to reach the in-
cremental form first. According to proofs of Chain Rule,
Equation (12) can be rewritten as follows:
2.2.1 Incremental form of constitutive relations when the


material is not damaged 
n
(mEij )t
An equivalent strain defined below is employed to deter- dsij,e = σm exp −mAEkl −
t=2
t
mine whether the strain is larger than the threshold strain.


∂Ekl  (mEij )t−1 ∂Ekl
n
εeq = (8) · mA + · t (15)
√

∂t t=2
t ∂t
2 3 2 
(ε1 −ε2 )2 + (ε2 −ε3 )2 + (ε3 −ε1 )2 + γ12 +γ23
2
+γ31
2
,
3 2 Considering t is short enough yields [33]:

where subscripts ‘1’, ‘2’ and ‘3’ denote the directions of ∂Ekl ∂Ekl Ekl
principal stresses. = = (16)
∂τ ∂t t
66 J. Xu and Y. Li

Thus Equation (13) becomes: 2.2.2 Incremental form of constitutive relations when the
material is damaged



n
(mEij )t When the strain is larger than the threshold strain, mate-
sij,e = σm exp −mAEkl − rial turns into ‘damage’ phase. As mentioned above, stress
t
t=2 tensor in ‘damage’ phase at time tn+1 can be concluded as:



n
(Eij )t−1
· m A Ekl + Ekl (17) {sij }n+1 = {sij }n + { sij }n+1 (22)
t=2
t
and Equation (21) can be rewritten as:
Similarly, viscoelastic stress tensors for both low strain
rate and high strain rate at t are: sij,n+1 = sij,n + sij,n+1 · (23)

  Therefore,
1 − exp − t
θ1
sij,t1 = E1 θ1 A Ekl
t sij,n+1 = sij,n+1 − sij,n
  
t t 1
− 1 − exp − sij,t1 (18) = sd
θ1 1 − Dn+1 ij,n+1
 
1
1 − exp − tθ2 +1d − sd
sij,t2 = E2 θ2 A Ekl 1 − Dn ij,n
t
   =
1
sd
t t 1 − Dn+1 ij,n+1
− 1 − exp − sij,t2 (19)
θ2
Dn+1 sdij,n
+ (24)
Therefore, the incremental form of stress tensor during (1 − Dn+1 ) (1 − Dn , )
one unit time step t can be obtained:
where Dn+1 = Dn+1 − Dn is the increase of damage vari-
able.
sij,n+1 = sij,e + sij,t1 + sij,t2 Rewriting Equation (23) yields:


n
(mEij )t
= σm exp −mAEkl − Dn+1 sdij,n
t sdij,n+1 = (1 − Dn+1 ) sij,n+1 −
t=2 (1 − Dn )


 n
(Eij )t−1 = (1 − Dn+1 ) sij,n+1 − Dn+1 sij,n · (25)
· m A Ekl + Ekl
t=2
t
  Similarly, the stress tensor under damage can be calcu-
1 − exp − t lated as:
θ1
+ E1 θ1 A Ekl
t sdij,n+1 = sdij,n + sdij,n+1 ε ≥ εth . (26)
  
t t
− 1 − exp − sij,t1
θ1
 
1 − exp − t θ2 2.3. Verification of constitutive relations
+ E2 θ2 A Ekl In order to verify the above constitutive relations, a classical
t
   example is chosen. A thin plate with infinite length and
t t
− 1 − exp − sij,t2 (20) 2b = 12 mm in width is under the uniform load q (t) =
θ2 1 kN · m. There is a small crack in centre with length 2a =
1 mm, see Figure 4. Material properties are listed in Table 1.
In the following way, the stress tensor can be calculated: By implementation the above constitutive relations into
FEA software numerical and adding the command of fail-
ure of material, results can be obtained. Comparing numer-
sij,n+1 = sij,n + sij,n+1 ε < εth , (21)
ical results with theoretical ones, we can conclude that the
constitutive relations model fairly well describe the crack
where tn+1 = tn + t. behaviour of PVB windshield, shown in Figure 5.
 International Journal of Crashworthiness 67

Table 1. Material parameters for plate.

σm /MP a n m E1 /MP a θ1 /s E2 /MP a θ2 /µs εth δ Ḋ0 Df

1100 4 19.9 949 13.8 3981 67.4 0.055 1.22 0.863 0.0797

were not activated until the penetration of the sphere into

the composite glass occurred for the sake of saving compu-
tation time.
An extra command that allows the failure of ma-
terial is added in the input file of LS-Dyna. Then the
above-mentioned constitutive relations with damage vari-
able could be fully employed in FEA.
The accuracy of the contact FEA model is firstly ex-
amined by classical Hertzian pressure calculation method.
Illustration of classical Hertzian theory is shown in Figure
7 [31]. The δ and a0 stand for mutual approach between two
bodies and their contact radius.
Deviations between FEA and theoretical results are all
within 1.5%. Comparison shown in Figure 8 demonstrates
the sufficient accuracy of the FEA model to stimulate the
impact between pedestrian head and PVB windshield.

Figure 4. Thin plate with centre crack under uniform load.

3.2. Material model
5
The PVB laminated glass is modelled according to the fol-
lowing principles: if the glass does not fail, the composite
Theoretical solutions is treated as a shell, otherwise, the interlayer PVB film, acts
4 Constitutive relations results
as a membrane. A Belytschko–Tsay shell element for the
glass material and a membrane element for the interlayer
Stress (GP)

3 are employed [3,4]. Both types of elements are fully inte-

grated in simulations so that no hourglass modes should be
expected [27].
2
Glass and PVB film both can be treated as isotropic
materials according to their physical and material proper-
1 ties. Therefore, we assume that each layer of composite
windshield is isotropic with respect to its material symme-
try lines and obeys Hooke’s law. It is assumed that, due to
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 the influence of dynamic loading, there is no sliding be-
Distance in X axis to the central point (mm) tween two contact layers. It then becomes reasonable to
consider the composite windshield as integrity. As a result,
Figure 5. A comparison between theoretical solutions and FEA
results. an equivalent elastic modulus and Poisson’s ratio should be

3. PVB windshield FEA modelling

3.1. Contact analysis
A non-conforming two-body contact model of a PVB
windshield loaded by a headform (sphere) is illustrated in
Figure 6. Shell elements were chosen to mesh the two bod-
ies in contact. Hourglass control and automatic surface-
to-surface contact with dynamic friction coefficient 0.1
were employed in LS-Dyna. Initial nodal gaps between the Figure 6. A simplified physical model of impact between head
two contact surfaces were prescribed. The contact elements and windshield.
68 J. Xu and Y. Li

Table 2. Parameters used in both constitutive relations and finite

element analysis.

Components Parameters and values

Headform [24] E = 6.5 GPa, ρ = 1412 kg/m3 , ν = 0.22

Glass [23] E = 74G Pa, ρ = 2500 kg / m3 , ν = 0.25,
tg = 2 mm
PVB film [29] K = 20 GPa, ρ = 1100 kg/m3 , tp = 0.76 mm
Windshield Panel dimensions (a × b): 1320 mm × 630 mm,
dimension with a small curvature in x and z direction in
coordinates.
Other Initial velocity: v0 = 10 m/s with no gravity field
configuration

know the cracks on windshields better. During the dynamic

Figure 7. A simplified crack-model based on Hertzian pressure
with moving coordinate at the crack tip is shown.
crack evolution shown in FEA analysis, stages of damage
evolution could be sketchily drawn as Figure 9. Three kinds
of cracks are conferential cracks, web crack and plastic
crack. The conferential cracks are mainly caused by pres-
sure stress while the conferential cracks are mainly caused
by tensor stress. Plastic cracks are the last stage that the
windshield deforms plastically.
In Figure 10, three kinds of internal stresses, tensile
stress σt , compressive stress σc and shear stress σs , are plot-
ted versus impact time. We can find out that the value of

Figure 8. Comparison between FEA results and Theoretical

results. Figure 9. Diagram of different crack-growing stage.

introduced as follows [32]. 2

1.8 Tensile stress
2tg Eg + tp Ep Compressive stress
Ē = (27) 1.6
Maximum stresses (GP)

2tg + tp Shear stress

1.4
2tg νg + tp νp
ν̄ = , (28) 1.2
2tg + tp
1
where Ē and ν̄ are equivalent Young’s modulus and equiv- 0.8
alent Poisson’s ratio of windshield glazing. 0.6
Material parameters are listed in Table 2.
0.4
0.2
4. Results and discussions 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
4.1. Internal stresses analysis Time (ms)
Cracks are demonstrations of internal and external stresses.
Only through investigating the internal stresses can we Figure 10. Maximum internal stress in PVB windshield.
 International Journal of Crashworthiness
2 Table 3. Comparison results of two models on Poisson’s ratio
Tensile stress
1.8
Compressive stress
1.6
Shear stress
1.4
Stress (GP)
1.2
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0 crack angle also increases though the increase pattern is
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500
(mm)
Figure 11. Maximum internal stress in PVB windshield.
stresses sorted from large to small is σs , σc and σt . A tensile
stress σt over the critical value would lead to circumferen-
tial cracks, the same as that pointed out by Zhao et al. [32].
It agrees the phenomena that in PVB windshield, circum-
ferential crack appears first. A compressive stress σc over
the critical value would lead to the radial crack. In PVB
windshield, the PVB interlayer can well hold the impact
and absorb some of the kinetic energy leading the radial
crack. The radial crack would appear with circumferential
crack, but seldom alone. The mixed crack is defined as
‘web crack’. The value of σc is larger than that of σt . There-
fore, radial cracks often extend farther than circumferential
cracks. Lawn and Wilshaw [19] stated that in addition to the
Hertzian cone crack and the median vent crack, there is also
an inelastic deformation zone where shear and hydrostatic
compression is greatest. Quite similarly, it is obvious to see
in Figure 10 that shear stress is the greatest among three
stresses, causing the windshield to deform plastically.
4.2. Internal stress variation among different
point on windshield plate
Internal stresses of different points on windshield plate are
far different and crack information can prove it. The cracks
become weaker as the radius grows larger for circumferen-
tial cracks, as do the radial cracks. In Figure 11, maximum
stresses appear at the very point that impacted by pedestrian
head. Stresses decrease as the distances from the central
point increase. The decreasing rates of three stresses are
nearly the same according to the computational results.
4.3. Effects of Poisson’s ratio on crack angle
Poisson’s ratio plays an important role of cone crack angle.
A parametric study is performed to manifest the effects
on crack angle. Poisson’s ratio is ranged from 0.2 to 0.4,
69
effect to crack angle.
Poisson’s ratio 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40
SIF analysis 12.4◦ 15.3◦ 19.6◦ 24.5◦ 27.7◦
◦ ◦ ◦ ◦
26.2◦
FEA analysis 11.8 15.1 18.9 23.1
Differences (%) 5.20% 1.32% 3.70% 6.10% 5.80%
with a step-width of 0.05. Table 3 shows the results of
FEA analysis compared to that of stress intensity factor
analysis (SIF). Maximum difference between the results is
below 7%. With the increase in Poisson’s ratio , the conical
still unknown.
4.4. Effects of impact velocity
Vehicle speed is a critical factor in pedestrian-vehicle traffic
accident. Extends and degrees of injuries largely depend on
the impact velocity between pedestrian and vehicle. There-
fore, studies of cracks on windshields under different head
impact velocity would provide the essential foundations
in pedestrian protection. According to the census data in
NTADTU, in most cases, vehicles impact pedestrians at the
speed of about 40 km/h ∼ 70 km/h. Thus, we vary the im-
pact velocity of the head from 0 to 20 m/s and make impact
velocity V0 as an independent variable. On the other hand,
we choose the maximum radius of circumferential cracks
Rc , the maximum length of radial cracks Lr and the max-
imum radius of plastically deformed area Rp as dependent
variables. Three dependent variables are illustrated and de-
fined in Figure 12.
In Figure 13, the impact velocity has very great influ-
ence to three chosen variables. At the impact velocity of 20
m/s, Rc can reach up to about 642 mm, much larger than
Rc ≈ 89 mm under the impact velocity of 5 m/s. Vehicle
velocity plays an extremely important role in both pedes-
trian head injury and damage of windshield. In addition, it
is reasonable to infer the extend of injuries of pedestrian
Figure 12. Effect of initial impact velocity of the stress.
70
800
700 Rc
Lr
600
Value of variables
Rp
500
400
300
200
100
0 [6] Z. Fenghua, W. Lili, and H. Shisheng, A damage-modified
0 5 10 15
Impact velocity (m/s)
Figure 13. Effect of initial impact velocity to cracks.
head and impacting velocity of vehicle roughly through Rc ,
Lr and Rp .
5. Conclusions
A damage-modified nonlinear viscoelastic constitutive re-
lations model of PVB windshield is suggested based on an
updated Lagrangian method to describe the damage and
crack of PVB windshields subject to the impact of pedes-
trian head. A simple example, a finite plate with a small
crack on it under tensile stress is examined. Good agree-
ment is found in the results from both theoretical calculation
and constitutive relations computation. After verification,
the constitutive relations are imbedded in FEA software
with proper material model of PVB laminated windshield
to further investigate the crack evolution. Results of classi-
cal Hertzian pressure calculation model are compared with
proposed FEA model. The FEA model is proved to be with
deviation below 1.5%. Internal stresses analysis is done to
study the crack. Shear stress, compressive stress and tensile
stress are main causes of plastic deformation, radial cracks
and circumferential cracks respectively. And the impacted
point has the highest internal stresses. The increase of Pois-
son’s ratio will lead the increase of crack angle. Impact
velocity has a great influence of crack formations as well
as the injuries of pedestrian head.
Acknowledgement
This work is financially supported by Open Project of State
Key Lab of Automotive Safety & Energy, Tsinghua Uni-
versity.
The authors also thank the anonymous referee’s useful com-
ments and suggestions.
J. Xu and Y. Li
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