- Author
-
Gilman, J. W.
|
Simiu, E.
- Title
- Polymer Film Applied to Glass: Effectiveness at Mitigating Damage from Flying Glass Due to Explosions.
- Coporate
- National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD
- Sponsor
- General Services Administration, Washington, DC
- Report
-
NISTIR 5779,
January 1996,
16 p.
- Distribution
- Available from National Technical Information Service
- Keywords
-
glass
|
explosions
|
damage
|
blasts
|
building technology
|
coatings
|
earthquakes
|
film
|
hurricanes
|
impacts
|
polymers
- Abstract
- Prompted by the terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, the Department of Justice has recommended the application of polymeric film to exterior glass in Federal buildings to reduce the possibility of damage resulting from flying glass from explosive blasts. Before deciding to undertake an extensive retrofit of all Federal facilities, the General Services Administration (GSA) requested the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Building and Fire Research (BFRL) to search pertinent English language bibliographic databases for research reports, test data or other available information in the literature on polymer film applied to monolithic glass. The scope of the literature search included: 1) blast effects on architectural glass; 2) performance of polymeric film on glass under blast conditions; and 3) the application, durability and maintainability of polymeric films on glass. This report does not address or attempt to assess the performance characteristics of any other glazing product, composite or application. The documentation available to date does not contain statistically significant evidence indicating that the use of polymer film as a retrofit on the daylight surface of monolithic glass measurably reduces the possibility of damage due to flying glass from explosive blasts.