Forcible Entry Demonstrations
Page 6
Air-blast Resistant Window Systems
4. Terminology
One barrier to the free and easy exchange of information among government agencies,
building managers, engineers, manufacturers, fire departments, and firefighters is that
these different groups of people often use different words to describe identical ideas. An
example of this are the terms used to refer to two layers of glass which are bonded
together with an interlayer. The building and engineering communities refer to this as
laminated glass and the fire service refers to this as safety glass. Appendix A presents
various terms , as they are used in this report.
5. Window Configurations
The windows and window treatments included in these demonstrations were selected to
represent an array of configurations representative of the most prevalent air-blast
resistance window retrofits and upgrades. This is not considered to be a complete catalog
of all air-blast-resistant retrofits or window types. The samples were chosen to answer the
basic question of whether forcible entry of typical air-blast-resistant window systems is
possible using standard firefighting tools.
Table 2 lists the window types tested. AG refers to annealed glass and TTG refers to
thermally-tempered glass. All glass is " thick. The bites on the laminated glass were
standard for the window industry (3/8"). The single-paned laminated windows were wet
glazed at the interior surface and dry glazed at the exterior. The insulating glass units
were dry glazed. All film was 7 mil (0.007 inches) in thickness and was mechanically
attached, when an attached system was used.
Appendix C presents the full test-day data table with all tests listed in order.
Table 2. Window Configurations Tested
Air-blast-Resistant System
Glas s
Attack
Floor
Test
Type
Side
Level
Number
AG
Exterior
1
1
AG
Interior
1
2
Daylight film
AG
Exterior
2
24
TTG
Exterior
1
3
TTG
Interior
1
4
TTG
Exterior
2
25
Four-sided attached film
AG
Exterior
1
5
AG
Interior
1
6
AG
Exterior
1
7
Four-sided attached film with center seam
AG
Interior
1
8
TTG
Exterior
1
9
Two-sided attached film
TTG
Interior
1
11
Two-sided attached film
TTG
Interior
1
10
with center seam
Single-paned laminated glass
AG
Exterior
1
14
with 0.030-inch interlayer
AG
Interior
1
15
TTG
Exterior
1
17
Single-paned laminated glass
TTG
Interior
1
16
with 0.060-inch interlayer
TTG
Exterior
2
26
Hinman Consulting Engineers, Inc
www.hce.com
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