Failure Analysis: Hurricane Window Defects

Laminated Glass: A glass failure analysis expert witness was engaged to inspect hurricane window defects. These windows were sold to meet the Miami Dade/State of Florida Building Code Requirements for hurricane resistance, and during development of the process, it appears as if these requirements were met. However, the laminating plastic in these windows interacted with the heat and humidity in south Florida. It appears that the laminated windows have a lamination plastic that dissolves and looses adhesion to the glass (please see attached photos). After deterioration these windows are no longer acceptable visually. In addition, it is certain that they will not pass the required code tests.

Glass Failure Analysis of Laminated and Tempered GLass

Glass failure analysis was performed by a failure analysis expert on a large laminated window of which one layer was tempered glass. The tempered half of the lamination failed. The other half of the window held the system together, and this allowed a failure analysis to be performed. The upper left photo is an over view of the window failure. The arrow indicates the general location of the failure origin of the tempered glass layer. The upper right photo is a closeup of the origin. The arrow indicates the location of a nickel sulfide particle (NiS) that caused the failure. It was reported that the tempered glass had been heat soaked. In this case the heat soak test (HST) did not eliminate on this window before it was sold.