Abstract: The study of windshield laminated glass is important for improving the performance of pedestrian
protection in the process of automobile development. A finite element (FE) model was established for the
automotive windshield laminated glass. The shell elements and solid elements were used to represent the
two layers of glass, for comparison study. The solid elements were used to represent the PVB inter layer.
Principal strain was used to deal with the crack of glass. With this finite element model, systematic analysis was
performed for the influence factors of pedestrian head form impacting the central area of automotive laminated
windshield glass. The results show that the modeling method based on 5-mm shell elements and hybrid mesh
can effectively predict the pedestrian head injury and the pattern of the glass fracture, well correlated with the
test. The method was then applied to the head form impacting to the bottom part of the windshield glass and the
roof crush. The analysis results of the patterns of glass cracks, the value of head injury criterion, and the roof
resistence strength are close to the test results. This method will be helpful for automotive windshield program
development and optimal design.

Key words: automotives, pedestrian protection, windshield laminated glass, numerical simulation, polyvinyl butyral (PVB), head injury criterion (HIC)