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Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) performance of vehicles is an all-encompassing study of hearing and feeling vibration as it relates to end user experience. The collection of glass in a vehicle can represent a large surface area, and can have a significant effect on NVH performance. Some of the most important glazing positions in relationship to the driver are the front doors, due to the proximity to the driver. Novel glass laminate constructions can provide acoustic improvement for these body positions over typically used standard glazings. The performance of these constructions will be discussed in terms of: acoustics, glass closing and door slam survivability, and solar performance.

Automotive manufacturers are requiring lightweight materials, including glazing materials to improve vehicle fuel economy and meet government mandates. Taken as a group, the area of four side windows is comparable to that of a windshield, and, therefore, can offer significant weight reduction opportunities. As glass thickness is reduced, the acoustic and stiffness properties of the glazing change. Newer developmental interlayer materials have demonstrated the capability for overcoming the reduction in performance to maintain the properties of the original heavier constructions.

Automotive manufacturers are requiring lightweight materials, including glazing materials to improve vehicle fuel economy mandates. Since windshields are one of the largest glazing surface areas, reducing the thickness of the glass in its construction can significantly provide weight savings opportunities. Automotive glazing design considerations must include overall glass strength, rigidity, acoustical, and solar performance, which are affected by changes of glass thicknesses. This paper will evaluate those design considerations in the lightweighting of windshield glazings. One important design consideration for the windshield position is the impact of debris from the environment. Lightweighting of glazings in this body position affects the way the construction reacts to an impact. Use of asymmetry in glass plies in a laminated construction can have a marked effect on the part’s impact performance and surface damage creation.

The use of lightweight materials to produce automotive glazing is being pursued by vehicle manufacturers in an effort to improve fuel economy. As glazing’s become thinner, reduced rigidity means that the critical flaw size needed to create fracture becomes much smaller due to increased strain under load or impact. This paper documents experiments focused on the impact performance of several alternative thin laminate constructions under consideration for windshield applications (including conventional annealed soda-lime glass as well as laminates utilizing chemically strengthened glass), for the purpose of identifying new and unique failure modes that result from thickness reduction. Regulatory impact tests and experiments that focused on functional performance of laminates were conducted. Given the increased sensitivity to flaw size for thin laminates, controlled surface damage was introduced to parts prior to conducting the functional performance tests.