A windshields surface characterization damaged by sandblasting

Abstract

The present work is part of a study of windshield glass erosion subjected to the Saharan sand particles projection. The objective is to highlight the effect of the sand grains size Ps on the degradation process of the ordinary glasses surface (damage rate Dr) and to search the visibility limit of vehicles' drivers. Various erosion tests are carried out and have led to different surface states by varying the sand mass Mp and the particles size Ps. The effect of the surface damage on root mean square roughness Rq, damage rate Dr, and optical transmission To are presented. A clear dependence between these three parameters and the particles size has been highlighted. The results show that Rq increases linearly with Ps increasing, whereas the Dr variation in function of Ps obeys a Gaussian function. In addition, a good correlation between the optical transmission loss and the damage rate is found. In terms of the driver's good vision, the damage of the windshield surface depends essentially on the parameter Dr. Therefore, the visibility limit is determined with regard to this parameter which is dependent on the sand particles size.