Case studies on blast behaviour of glass façades: Sri Lanka easter bombings

Abstract

Sri Lanka Easter attacks were done by coordinated suicide bombers on 21 st of April, 2019. This paper investigates the damages to the glass façades due to the explosions that occurred inside the five-star hotels, Shangri-La, and Kingsbury in central Colombo. It is evident from previous explosions that the blast-related injuries are mainly caused by the free-flying glass fragments. Laminated Glass (LG) will provide better resistance to explosions that occur outside the building if they are properly designed to be held on the supporting structure. Because, if the blast pressure enters the building, it will cause severe damage to the building elements while creating injuries to the occupants. However, when an explosion occurs inside the building, damage to the building elements and occupants will be severe if the blast pressure cannot escape from the confined building premises easily. Therefore, both of these aspects should be considered when designing glass façades for a credible blast load. LG has better blast resistance than monolithic glass. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the effect of the Easter bombings on glass façades and some design strategies which can be recommended for blast-resistant glazing with the evidence from available literature and design standards.