This new video from the University of Missouri demonstrates a special explosion-resistant glass that may offer protection to federal buildings, other critical infrastructures and even residences vulnerable to hurricanes.
The problem is that current blast-resistant glass is heavy, thick and expensive. But, MU researchers are developing and testing this new glass that is thinner, lighter and less vulnerable to small-scale explosions.
Sanjeev Khanna, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the MU College of Engineering, says the new glass replaces a plastic layer in the old-style glass with a transparent composite material made of glass fibers that are embedded in plastic. The glass fibers, only about 25 microns thick, leave little room for defects in the glass that could lead to cracking. The use of a transparent composite interlayer provides us the flexibility to change the strength of the layer by changing the glass fiber quantity and its orientation, Khanna says.