The paper reports on the preliminary evaluation of a transparent structural silicone adhesive (TSSA) developed for point fixing in glazing, which combines high transparency, strong adhesion performance, thermal stability, and excellent weatherability. The transparent film adhesive is a heat curing one-part material that shows strong bonding to glass, metals, ceramics, and even plastics typically without primer. The paper presents information on the durability and physical properties of the new material and suggests a methodology for deriving static and dynamic design strength values for the new material based on creep rupture experiments as well as nondestructive dynamic load experiments using the stress whitening phenomenon observed with this material as the limit state. The paper further discusses material characterization and hyperelastic modeling used in the finite element analysis based on finite strain theory.

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Silicone sealants have a long history of successful use in high performance windows and curtainwalls, such as structural glazing systems. With the recent threat of terrorist attacks, there has been an increased use of windows designed to mitigate the impact of bomb blasts. Due to the high strength and durability characteristics of silicone sealants, structural silicone sealants have been utilized in new bomb blast mitigating window designs. Effective bomb blast mitigating window designs allow the window system to withstand a moderate bomb blast without causing significant injury to building occupants from the blast itself or flying glass shards. The occupants are protected because laminated or filmed glass, which can withstand the blast, is attached in the framing with a silicone sealant. Silicone sealants provide unique benefits to these window designs due to their strength properties and their ability to anchor the laminated glass in the framing during a blast situation. In this paper, three commercially available high strength structural silicone sealants are evaluated at applied load velocities (movement rates) up to 5.0 m/s. These elevated load velocities are intended to simulate loads encountered during a bomb blast. Sealant joints are fabricated to evaluate the sealant in tension, shear, and combined tension and shear loads. Sealants joints are also exposed to accelerated weathering (heat, water, and artificial light through glass). Results show that the sealant strength values increase substantially at elevated rates of applied load. The paper discusses the effect of joint configuration, load velocities, and accelerating weathering on the performance and durability of the silicone sealants tested.

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