A comparison of existing standards for testing blast resistant glazing and windows

It is important to protect critical buildings (shopping centres, government buildings and embassies), infrastructure and utilities, train and underground stations against being damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism, criminal activity and malicious behaviour. Normal regulations and building guidelines do not generally take into account these threats. The introduction of appropriate regulations or guidelines, where deemed necessary, should enhance the resilience of buildings and infrastructure against explosion incidents. In order to protect the built infrastructure, methods are required to quantify the resistance of structural components against explosive loading and to assess the hazards resulting from the failure of an element. The applicable state-of-the-art techniques may include either experimental or numerical methods, or a combination of both. Therefore, the thematic group (TG) on the resistance of structures to explosion effects was formed in order to bring the required expertise together, make it commonly available and to find and define harmonised methods and solutions which can be provided to the decision-makers responsible for critical infrastructure protection. This report discusses the differences between the existing standards for testing blast-resistant glazing and windows and it presents basic recommendations for the future development of the suite of European standards in this area.