GS&E journal: Investigations on the execution and evaluation of the Pummel test for polyvinyl butyral based interlayers

Authors

  • Miriam Schuster Institute of Structural Mechanics and Design, Technical University of Darmstadt
  • Jens Schneider Institute of Structural Mechanics and Design, Technical University of Darmstadt
  • Tuong An Nguyen Institute of Structural Mechanics and Design, Technical University of Darmstadt
challenging glass

Abstract

Laminated safety glass (LSG) is increasingly used as structural element in buildings. Of central importance for safety are the adhesion and the residual load-bearing capacity in the post fractured state. In literature a large number of tests to assess adhesion is mentioned. These include, e.g. peel tests, through-cracked-tensile/-bending tests, VW-pull tests and compressive shear tests. However, especially in industry, the Pummel test is widespread for determining the quality of adhesion in LSG with polyvinyl butyral based interlayers. This test method proves to be simple and quick to carry out: The laminate is stored at − 18 °C and then completely destroyed at room temperature with hammer blows. The adhesion level (0–10) is determined by visually comparing the adhering glass fragments with reference pictures or with the help of diagrams and tables which indicate the Pummel value as a function of the free film surface. Pummel value 0 is to be interpreted as no adhesion and Pummel value 10 as very high adhesion. Due to the lack of standardization, the execution and evaluation is very much dependent on the test institution and executive person. This paper shows different Pummel classifications that can currently be found on the market. Subsequently, approaches to the automatization and standardization of the execution and especially the evaluation of the Pummel test are shown. Three image evaluation methods in Matlab are presented, discussed and compared: (1) analysis of binary images, (2) statistical evaluation of the greyscale images and (3) texture analysis using co-occurrence matrices.

Published

2020-09-04

Issue

Section

Laminated Glass & Interlayer Properties

Keywords:

Laminated safety glass, Adhesion, Pummeltest, Automatization, Digital image evaluation