Glass system design for head impact protection with automotive bulletproof glass

K. Friedman, J. Hutchinson, K. Bui, S. Senesac, D. Mihora, Friedman Research Corporation

Bulletproof glass has been used for many years in vehicles such as armored bank vehicles for the transport of money. More recently, the use of bulletproof glass has increased in executive vehicles. The occupants of these and other vehicles with such glass typically are not wearing helmets. If side curtain airbags are not provided in such vehicles, occupants of these vehicles can have significant head impacts with the bulletproof glass during motor vehicle accidents. The present paper describes the design and development of a glass system to address this issue. Design evaluations are presented comparing alternative glass formulations as part of the head impact protection system. Design characteristics and tradeoffs are discussed. Examples of finite element modeling results associated with the development process are reported. The resulting system significantly reduces the observed head injury measures compared with the baseline system.

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