Dataset: Cladding fragment impact prediction using material properties

Abstract

Terrorist attacks involving improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have more recently included fragmentation such as nuts, bolts and ball bearings. Under theTerrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, building owners must incorporate public protection procedures and to do so correctly they must understand how the building would perform against an attack. As more external cladding products come onto the market ranging from ceramics and timber products tofibre cement boards and high-pressure laminates, there is a risk that not all cladding will protect occupants from blast driven fragmentation. This research assesses the suitability of standard laboratory material tests to predict the V50 ballistic limit, a measure of penetration resistance. Plastic impact testing wasnot suitable for the full set of materials, flexural strength showed moderate correlation and two types of hardness testing Mohs and Shore D were the most accurate predicters when combined with material groupings (ceramic, fibrous and non-fibrous). A validation exercise with seven additional non-ceramic products demonstrated Shore D prediction errors of up to 26%. This supports the potential utility of the simple test for comparing and estimating penetration resistance of external cladding products. It is recommended that further testing on a wider variety of materials is completed to build the dataset and refine the regression equations.