31 oktober 2025
Bomb Blast Testing
In this video, Andrej Vorkapić details the engineering and testing processes behind bomb blast-resistant facades, explaining that such protection is needed for public buildings and high-risk sites due to threats from terrorism, military action, or accidental industrial explosions. The main danger is the air shock wave from a blast, characterized by its peak pressure and impulse. A successful facade must protect occupants and the main structure, prevent pressure penetration, and—critically—not generate hazardous fragments. While frames can be made from ductile materials like steel or aluminum, the brittle nature of glass is overcome by using laminated glass with a PVB interlayer, which holds the broken pieces in place. The most reliable validation method is physical testing, with two primary types discussed: the cost-effective but incomplete shock tube test and the expensive but highly realistic range test, which was successfully demonstrated on a full-scale sample designed to withstand a 200kg TNT car bomb simulation. The video was produced by the Open GLASSroom project. Special thanks to Andrej Vorkapić and Nebojša Buljan for contributing to the Open GLASSroom OER collection. The creation of these resources has been (partially) funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2022-1-DE01-KA220-HED-000089750. Neither the European Commission nor the project's national funding agency DAAD are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting of the use of these resources.