Prediction of vehicle impact speed based on the post-cracking behavior of automotive PVB laminated glass: Analytical modeling and numerical cohesive zone modeling

•A vehicle impact speed prediction model based on the post-cracking response of windshield is presented.•Dynamic fracture relationship between laminated glass plate subjected to an impactor expressed analytically.•The head-windshield accident is chosen to investigate numerically.•The effectiveness of the presented prediction formulations is verified with real accident cases. Targeted investigation of the impact fracture performance of PVB laminated glass, which is a combined analytical and numerical method for impact dynamics prediction, is presented. In this method, the relationship between the impact force and the post-cracking response of laminated glass is developed in the framework of impact dynamics to present a prediction formulation. The formulation is utilized to be applied to predict vehicle impact speed based on the crack patterns propagated on the automotive laminated glass due to the pedestrian head impact. To prepare a numerical set-up, an automotive laminated glass finite element model is proposed by inserting cohesive elements on all common surfaces of glass layers and glass-PVB interfacial. The prediction model is validated well by comparison with numerical crash patterns and ten real vehicle–pedestrian accident cases.