Int J Fract (2010) 162:151–158
DOI 10.1007/s10704-009-9379-7
ORIGINAL PAPER
Impact damage in layered glass
Stephan Bless · Tiffany Chen
Received: 4 February 2009 / Accepted: 1 July 2009 / Published online: 28 July 2009
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract High-velocity impact onto a layered glass
target produces a very extensive damage pattern exhib-
iting many distinct morphologies. Material around the
penetration cavity is finely comminuted. Under the
arrested projectile, the glass is largely intact with spoke-
like fracture regions. Around the projectile cavity,
needle fragments are formed; they are radial in outer
layers and circumferential in inner layers. Extensive
radial cracks occur in all layers, but the spacing and
frequency of transverse fractures change in each layer.
Damage from radial cracks also progresses from being
hoop-stress-induced to flexural-induced through the
depth of the target. Fan and dicing cracks occur near
the periphery of the target. Mesoscale damage features
include conventional mist and hackle markings indi-
cating very fast cracks. The map of damage presented
herein should be a valuable reference for attempts to
model impact damage of glass.
Keywords Glass · Transparent armor
1 Introduction
Glass laminate armor has become a subject of intense
interest in recent years (e.g., Patel et al. 2000). Con-
S. Bless (B) · T. Chen
Institute for Advanced Technology, The University
of Texas at Austin, 3925 West Braker Lane, Suite 400,
Austin, TX 78759, USA
e-mail: sbless@iat.utexas.edu
sequently, efforts have begun to develop better consti-
tutive models for glass (Holmquist et al. 1995; Chocran
et al. 2007). This is a challenging task, since the dynamic
properties of glass differ in many ways from other brit-
tle materials (Kanel and Bless 2002), in that shocks are
dispersive at low stresses, glasses exhibit very high ten-
sile strength, they can permanently densify under shock
loading, and failure waves can initiate at free surfaces.
Historically, most scientific investigations of glass pen-
etration have involved thick targets (e.g., Anderson
et al. 2005) or plane stress configurations (Hornemann
and Kaltoff 1984; Brajer et al. 2003). Relatively few
studies of impact phenomenology onto laminates have
appeared (e.g., Stevenson et al. 2000; Bless et al. 2007).
Moreover, to date, no detailed description is available
of impact damage from the type of high-velocity pro-
jectiles that represent current threats onto multi-
laminate glass armor representative of present tech-
nology. Without such a description, development and
validation of analytical and numerical models for high-
velocity impact onto glass laminates will be difficult.
This paper is intended to begin to fill this knowledge
gap.
The projectile and outer layers of the target tested
here were similar to those tested in an experiment on
a four-layer glass laminate described by Bless et al.
(2007). In that study, high-speed photographs were
taken of the impact, frames of which are reproduced
in Fig. 1. The photographs show that dark propagation
fronts, visually resembling failure waves, propagate in
the first two layers: radial in the first, and through the
123
152
Fig. 1 High-speed photographs, looking from the side, of impact
onto a four-layer glass target (5.8, 5.8, 9.7, 9.7 mm) backed by
5.8 mm of polycarbonate. Exposure times after impact are
indicated. From Bless et al. (2007)
thickness in the second. Consistent with observations
in Bless (2009), we assume the second layer fails from
the front to the rear. The inner layers under the pro-
jectile become translucent. Results shown in this paper
help to interpret those dynamic observations.
2 Experimental setup
The target used in the experiment, shown in Fig. 2,
was intended to mimic the construction used for typi-
cal military lightweight fighting vehicles. It was com-
prised of seven layers of 30 cm × 30 cm untempered
soda lime glass of 7.6 cm total thickness, and two layers
of 36 cm × 36 cm polycarbonate (Lexan) of 12.7 mm
total thickness. It was donated by Secure Holdings,
Inc. The glass laminates were separated by 0.6 mm of
polyurethane (Huntsman 399), while the lateral edges
of the glass were confined with tape. The glass was
supported from the bottom by a wood block and held
vertical by two straps that were attached to the polycar-
bonate backplate where it extended beyond the glass.
There was no rear support to the polycarbonate behind
the glass. The entire strike plate surface was covered by
paper-backed masking tape in order to help recover par-
ticles and fragments. A standard 12.7 mm (50 caliber),
123
S. Bless, T. Chen
Fig. 2 Sketch of the laminated glass target
13.4 g, HRC30 steel fragment-simulating projectile
(FSP) with an 18 mm long cylindrical body and trun-
cated two-sided chisel nose was shot into the glass at a
velocity of 1,118 ± 5 m/s, as measured by commercial
time-of-arrival screens.
3 Impact damage
Penetration was 19 mm; the projectile stopped in the
second glass layer and was ejected from the target. The
FSP was compressed to a length of 8 mm but still
weighed 13 g. Although only two of the layers were
penetrated, damage extended throughout all regions of
all seven layers. The polycarbonate backplate, how-
ever, was not deformed. After the shot the target was
systematically disassembled using ethanol to soften the
adhesive layers. The damage patterns in each layer were
documented as the layer was revealed. A sketch of the
overall damage pattern is provided in Fig. 3. Table 1
provides dimensions of each damage region. Note that
debonding between the glass and polyurethane was
never observed.
3.1 Impact region
Particles from the impact crater were recovered and
examined with optical and scanning electron micro-
scopes. Many of these particles exhibited conventional
mist and hackle markings. However, these patterns
occurred on a much finer scale than has previously been
observed. In particular, twist hackle produced very fine
scale stair-step features (Fig. 4). Ravi-Chandar has dis-
cussed a possible origin for this pattern (Ravi-Chandar
and Bisen 2009). There are even hackle marks on the
stair steps, which would seem to indicate that crack
Impact damage in layered glass 153

Fig. 3 Sketch showing

damage zones in target after
shot

Table 1 Damage zone measurements (dimensions in mm)

Feature Layer Outer radius

Hole in first polyurethane layer 1 6

Impact crater 1 31
Bundled radial cracks 1 51
Outward fan cracks 1 53
Coarse radial cracks 1 118
Bow-tie cracks 1 146
Impact crater 2 40
Needle cracks 2 95
Compacted disk 3 46
Ripple cracks 3 58
Compacted disk 4 49 Fig. 4 A particle from the impact region showing a stair-step
Compacted disk 5 50 pattern with hackles on the steps
Compacted disk 6 50
Florets 7 25

acceleration and rotation took place on a micron scale.

The other usual feature was the presence of a large num-
ber of glass whiskers, as shown in Fig. 5. The transverse
dimension of the whiskers was submicron, and their
lengths were tens of microns. The whiskers were some-
times observed to protrude from the grooves between
hackle patterns. These probably correspond to “hackle
lances” as described by Quinn (2007).
Index of refraction was measured by oil immersion
of selected particles. However, there was no evidence
of densification.
Fig. 5 Whiskers found on particles from the impact region

3.2 Strike face

circle, these were the impact crater, the bundled radial
The strike face exhibited a sequence of distinct dam- cracks, the outward fan cracks, the coarse radial cracks,
age patterns, whose transitions appear concentric to the the bow-tie region, dicing cracks, and the inward fan
impact site, as shown in Fig. 6. Starting from the inner cracks. Dimensions are summarized in Table 1.

123
154
Fig. 6 Details of damage in the strike plate: a bundled radial cracks, b fan crack, c coarse radial cracks, d bow-tie crack, and e dicing
crack
The main sequence of damage that is symmetric about
the impact is also sketched in Fig. 7.
Figure 6a shows a magnified view of the bundled
radial cracks that border the crater in the strike face.
The damage is restricted to sheaths of radial cracks,
but the region between the crack bundles is not
damaged. The damage patterns seen between the
bundles in Fig. 6a are actually in the second glass
layer.
Figure 6b shows the outward fan cracks, which are
apparently due to branching of the bundled radial
cracks. The apex of each fan is on the center of the
crack bundle; the apex angles are about 67◦ .
Figure 6c shows the coarse radial cracks that extend
beyond the crack fans. It appears that the individual
radial cracks are connected to the individual cracks
in the outward fan crack, e.g., cracks originate on the
impact crater, run in a bundle, branch or spread out
in a fan, then turn and propagate radially. Individual
blocks bounded by the radial cracks often have inte-
rior cracks that branch, twist, and then stop. Transverse
123
S. Bless, T. Chen
cracks seldom cross the radial cracks, indicating the
later formation of the transverse cracks. Samples col-
lected from this region usually retained their full thick-
ness because there are no cracks parallel to the plate
surface.
Figure 6d illustrates bow-tie cracks, which appear
just beyond the termination of the coarse radial cracks.
Bow-ties are two crack fans, connected at a common
origin, that propagate azimuthally in opposite direc-
tions. This particular crack pattern was only observed
in the strike plate. Apex angles are typically 90◦ . Chips
between cracks were often dislodged from the surface
in this region.
Figure 6e illustrates dicing cracks that were found
beyond the bow-tie cracks. This region lacks a dom-
inant orientation or symmetry. Dicing fragments are
curved in their surface trace and the interior surfaces
are twisted. Samples of glass traced out by the dicing
cracks had an average length of 3 cm. Dicing fragments
usually retained their full thicknesses. In the corners of
the plates are inward-facing crack fans.
Impact damage in layered glass
Fig. 7 Schematic drawing
of features seen in strike
face (not to scale)
4 Rear glass plate
Fracture patterns on the rear plate were easily seen
through the undamaged polycarbonate backing. Sim-
ilar to the damage morphology on the strike plate, the
rearmost glass layer can also be segregated into differ-
ent damage patterns. As one examines this plate away
from the center, the following patterns in Fig. 8 are
observed: florets, continuous radial cracks, and inward-
fan cracks.
The florets are very small asterisk-like features
located in the center region of the back of the target,
directly under the projectile’s stopping location. Upon
disassembly, this region was found to be structureless,
and there were no particles resembling the florets seen
on the rear surface of the undeconstructed targets. The
observed features may be the base of conical fracture
zones.
Fig. 8 Fracture regions in the rear glass plate
155
Unlike the strike plate, radial cracks on the back plate
were very straight, were continuous, and extended all
the way to the edges (except for the corners). The radial
slices were finely chopped by transverse cracks, which
rarely crossed the radial cracks. There were approxi-
mately 0.43 radial cracks per degree. Glass from this
region was recovered as platelets, as opposed to pie
pieces from the top layers. The cracking sequence
appears to have been: radial cracks, then transverse
cracks, then cracks parallel to the rear face.
Superimposed on the region of continuous radial
cracks, there are eight spoke-like bands in which the
damage pattern is distinctly less intense. The bands that
bisect the edges into quadrants are slightly wider than
those that run to the corners. Inside the bands, the spac-
ing of the continuous radial cracks is typically 1 cm,
whereas the distance between radial cracks adjacent to
the bands is typically 1 mm.
In the corners of the rear plate, there were inward-
facing fan cracks and dicing cracks, similar to the first
layer (and all other layers).
5 Second layer
The damage in the second layer of glass around the
impact cavity consisted of radial needle fragments. This
pattern transitions to coarse radial cracks and then dic-
ing cracks; dimensions are given in Table 1. The outer
coarse radial cracks resembled those in the strike plate,
but the needle cracks (shown in Fig. 9) were unique.
They were roughly square in cross section and tapered,
with the sharp end pointing toward the center. Needles
123
156
Fig. 9 Needle cracks in the second glass plate
could easily be broken loose either individually or as
bundles with various lengths. Individual needles were
typically 1 × 1 × 20 mm.
6 Inner layers
Layers 3 through 6, which were all below the location of
projectile stoppage, were similar in appearance. In each
layer there was a compact central disk, surrounded by
ripple cracks, coarse radial cracks, and dicing cracks,
as shown in Fig. 10.
In the third plate, beneath the crater, the compact
disk consisted of undamaged blocks separated by
regions where the glass was heavily microfissured. The
damaged regions were confined to spokes radiating out-
ward from the center, as can be seen in Fig. 10.
Around the central column were ripple cracks, which
were especially prominent in layer 3 and decreased in
extent in deeper layers. These are rectangular-shaped
fractures concentric to the center that resemble ripples
in a pond. The glass here can be broken out as rectangu-
lar prisms similar to the needle cracks from the second
layer. However, ripple crack fragments are coarser and
harder to break loose than needle crack fragments, and
their axis is perpendicular to the radial direction.
The coarse radial crack regions in deeper glass lay-
ers are different from the corresponding regions in the
first two layers. The glass between the radial cracks is
composed of flakes that broke off in platelets parallel to
the impact surface. More transverse cracks were found
in these deeper layers compared to the first two layers.
123
S. Bless, T. Chen
In addition to the system of radial cracks, there are
four extensive faults present in layers 4–6. These rel-
atively straight fissures ran through the stack of inner
plates and were not only visible, but easily pried open
(Fig. 11). This is distinct from the spoke bands in the
rear plate, where there was virtually no opening dis-
placement.
7 Interpretations
Interpretation of damage patterns is necessarily specu-
lative. High-speed photographic records such as those
shown in Fig. 1 indicate that the region around the
impact is enveloped by a failure wave. The extremely
fine crack branching that produced the features shown
in Fig. 3 is presumably the trace of the failure wave. The
appearance of radial needle cracks in layer 2 is com-
patible with cavity expansion analysis, which predicts
this behavior (e.g., Satapathy and Bless 2000).
The compact disks in layers 3–6 and the florets in
layer 7 are approximately the same diameter as the cra-
ter in layer 2. These features are probably all produced
by the compression stress generated by the projectile
as it decelerates.
The transition from evacuated cavity to radial cracks
may represent the quenching of the impact-induced
failure wave, and localization into bundles of the initial
radial cracks around the cavity in layer 1 may be a con-
sequence of failure wave kinematics. Peak shock stress
in the strike plate can be computed from one-dimen-
sional Hugoniot analysis; it is 10.5 GPa. This stress
should produce an expanding failure wave around the
impact site. The decay of peak stress with distance
will be approximately as r/R (where R is the impac-
tor radius), from which the peak stress where the bun-
dled radial cracks start is about 2 GPa. This is near the
minimum stress necessary for failure waves (Bless and
Brar 2007). Studies of planar and curved failure waves
all show that the wave front breaks up into “fingers”
(Bourne et al. 1995; Strassburger et al. 2005; Grinfeld
et al. 2007), and perhaps the spacing of the crack bun-
dles arises from this instability.
High-speed photography also has shown that the
coarse radial cracks propagate with an acoustic veloc-
ity. Thus, they are probably “pulled” by the hoop stress
behind the radial compression wave, as opposed to
“pushed” by crack opening displacement at their roots.
The transverse cracks that break the radial slices are
Impact damage in layered glass
Fig. 10 Compacted region
in layer 3, beneath where the
projectile stopped, which
transitions to ripple cracks
and coarse radial cracks
Fig. 11 The fourth glass layer, showing the location of extensive
quadrant cracks
almost certainly caused by late-time bending due to
rebound that is responsible for ultimate ejection of the
projectile. That also explains why surface chips are
ejected from some of the cracks in the front plate.
The difference in character of radial cracks in the
outer two layers and the inner layers can probably be
explained by considering momentum. The penetrated
layers experience a stress that is mainly radial, as mate-
rial is moved out of the way of the penetrator. The
inner layers must absorb the momentum of the pene-
trator. Moreover, each glass layer is underlayed by a
relatively compliant layer of polyurethane. The greater
flexing and rebound of these layers causes additional
flaking and transverse fracture. Consider also the anal-
ysis by Sun et al. (2005) of impact onto two-layer
laminates. They found that the impact layer fails in
hoop tension, whereas the inner glass fails by flexing.
157
Indeed, the long straight radial cracks in the rear plate
are consistent with flexing of the entire plate, which
may be possible because of its relatively compliant
polycarbonate backing. Inward-facing crack fans in the
corners are consistent with wave reflections in corners,
as discussed, for example, by Rinehart (1975).
8 Summary
Multi-layer glass laminates are an important subject
for study, since this technology is used in many cur-
rently fielded armor vehicles. Even impacts that result
in fractional penetration of such laminates can pro-
duce extensive damage far from the impact site, which
will affect multi-hit performance. The damage patterns
are symmetric about the impact, showing that impact-
generated stress waves cause the primary damage. How-
ever, deeper layers can also experience crevice damage
regions that have the same symmetry as the glass struc-
ture, showing that structural response can cause much
damage in material that is weakened by the prompt
crack systems.
On the local scale, many distinct damage morpholo-
gies are observed. Generally, the length scale of damage
increases with distance away from the impact site. In
the layers that were penetrated, the damage is mainly
due to hoop stress driven by radial expansion, whereas
in the inner layers damage is increasingly caused by
flexural stresses. The area around the impact site is
also swept by a failure wave that causes extremely fine-
scale crack branching. Somehow, the self-organization
of damage becomes manifested at a meso and macro
scale near the crater: as bundled radial cracks in layer 1,
123
158
as radial needle cracks in layer 2, and as transverse nee-
dle cracks in layer 3.
This documentation of impact damage morphology
will hopefully serve as a guide and a calibration for
ongoing efforts to develop analytic and numerical mod-
els for penetration resistance of glass.
Acknowledgments The research reported in this document
was performed in connection with Award Number N00014-06-1-
475 from the Office of Naval Research. Any opinions, findings,
and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material
are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the Office of Naval Research.
References
Anderson CE Jr, Chocran S, Walker JD (2005) Analysis of time-
resolved penetration of long rods into glass targets. In:
29th International conference and exposition on advanced
ceramics and composites, Cocoa Beach
Bless SJ (2009) Failure waves and their possible roles in deter-
mining penetration resistance of glass. Int J Appl Ceram
Technol (in press)
Bless SJ, Brar NS (2007) Failure waves and their effects on pen-
etration mechanics in glass and ceramics. In: Horie Y (ed)
High pressure shock compression of solids, vol 1. Springer,
pp 104–142
Bless SJ, Chen T, Russell R (2007) Impact on glass laminates.
In: 23rd international symposium on ballistics, Tarragona,
April 18–20
Bourne NK, Rosenberg Z, Field JE (1995) High-speed photog-
raphy of compressive failure waves in glasses. J Appl Phys
76:3726–3739
Brajer X, Forquin P, Gy R, Hild F (2003) The role of surface and
volume defects in fracture of glass under quasi-static and
dynamic loading. J Non Cryst Solids 316:42–53
Chocran S, Anderson CE Jr, Nicholls AE, Rickmann R (2007)
Constitutive model for borosilicate glass and application to
123
S. Bless, T. Chen
long-rod penetration. In: 23rd international symposium on
ballistics, Tarragona, Spain, April 18–20
Grinfeld MA, McCauley JW, Schoenfeld SI, Wright TW (2007)
Failure patterns in brittle ceramics and glasses. In: 23th
international symposium on ballistics, Tarragona, April
16–20
Holmquist TJ, Johnson GR, Grady DE, Lopatin CM, Hertel ES Jr
(1995) High strain rate properties and constitutive model-
ing of glass. In: 15th International symposium on ballistics,
Jerusalem, Israel, May 21–24
Hornemann U, Kaltoff J (1984) Experimental investigation of
wave and fracture propagation in glass slabs loaded by steel
cylinders at high velocities. Institute of Physics Conference
Series No. 70, Oxford
Kanel GI, Bless SJ (2002) Compressive fracture of brittle sol-
ids under shock-wave loading. Ceramic armor materials by
design. Ceram Trans 134:197–216
Patel PJ, Gilde GA, Dehmer PG, McCauley JW (2000) Transpar-
ent ceramics for armor and EM window applications. Proc
SPIE 4102
Quinn GD (2007) Fractography of ceramics and glasses. NIST
Special Publication 960-6, pp 5–35
Ravi-Chandar K, Bisen L (2009) On non-planar crack growth
under mixed-mode loading. Fracture (in press)
Rinehart JS (1975) Stress transients in solids. HyperDynamics,
Santa Fe
Satapathy S, Bless S (2000) Cavity expansion resistance of brit-
tle materials obeying a two-curve pressure shear behavior.
J Appl Phys 88:4004–4012
Stevenson ME, Jones SE, Bradt RC (2000) Fracture patterns of
a composite safety glass panel during high velocity pro-
jectile impacts. Fractography of glasses and ceramics IV,
American Ceramics Society
Strassburger E, Patel P, McCauley JW, Templeton DW (2005)
High-speed photographic study of wave and fracture prop-
agation in fused silica. In: 22nd international symposium
on ballistics, Vancouver, November 14–18
Sun X, Khaleel A, Davies R (2005) Modeling of stone-impact
resistance of monolithic glass ply using continuum damage
mechanics. Int J Damage Mech 14:165–178