Read Consulting was asked to perform a glass failure analysis on a cracked aircraft windshield. This is a laminated windshield contains with heating elements between the glass layers. The outer layer is a piece of 5mm thick annealed glass which cracked during normal use. The failure initiated at a damage site on the edge face of the outer 5mm thick glass. The meandering cracks were driven by thermal stresses. The stresses may come from the embedded heaters.
