Sealed Window Glazing System for Chemical Biological Protected Space Applications

摘要

Recent world events have drawn attention to threats that extend beyond deployed forces to the civilian population. In the recent Gulf War, several specific threats were highlighted for both U.S. military forces and Israeli civilians. The most obvious threat to civilians in that conflict was explosive. Less obvious, but even more potentially dangerous, was the threat of chemical-biological weapons of mass destruction. The key in 'protective design' is to define the weak points in a structure and reduce the threat at those points. The paper discusses early pioneering work on blast-resistant windows, at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL/MLQD), that dealt with the use of applied polymer membranes to combat the combined threat of blast and chemical- biological attacks. The paper discusses the evolution of 'membrane' windows, right up to the present, where a combination of rigid and flexible components, membranes, anchoring techniques, and pressure relief ports are used to create a window that can withstand the pressure expected from a large blast and afterwards retain membrane integrity sufficient to resist a subsequent chemical- biological attack. Specific improvements that have increased the survivability of the window are discussed, as are improvements currently being tested that should allow these windows to be expanded to 'store-front' size without a degradation in protection. (18 figures).