Numerical and experimental assessment of optimal modeling of laminated glass post-breakage response

Modeling laminated glass response to extreme loading scenarios is a computationally demanding process in designing and analyzing protective structures. Therefore, an optimal modeling scheme requires a delicate trade-off between accuracy and computational demand. This article investigates the failure modeling of laminated glass layups of thin and thick panels (three and 11 layers) under blast loading. This is done by implementing various simulation techniques: the finite element method with element erosion/deletion, the mesh-free method of smoothed particle hydrodynamics, and the hybrid implementation of mesh-based and mesh-free simulation through element conversions into particles. This Article examines the feasibility and limitations of each method, considering both the aspects of accuracy and computational cost in light of experimental testing results obtained from both arena and shock tube scenarios. Mesh sensitivity and the significance of adaptive meshing in capturing the fracture patterns are evaluated. The present paper suggests that using hybrid techniques leads to optimal modeling results. Furthermore, the stability of the modeling results under diverse blast conditions is verified.