Ballistic and Fire Resistance of Hybrid GRP Reinforced Timber Doors

Abstract

This paper presents the results of Ballistic resistance tests on timber doors. Timber is known to be very weak in resisting bullet shots particularly the frame which may represents the weakest path in the door against ballistics. The newly developed doors consist of sandwich layers of GRP and timber which can significantly increase the bullet resistance of the doors. GRP is one of the new emerging bullet proof materials that have strength around 6-8 times more than steel. High tensile steel hinges and locks were used to resist the bullets’ impact and were attached securely to the door and the frame to avoid punching failure. The bullet proof test of the doors was performed according to the EN1522:1999 standards aiming towards FB4 resistance which consist or .44 Magnum handgun at 440 m/s speed of the 15.62 gm bullet mass. Details of the tests and prototypes are presented in the paper. The doors were able to pass a test of 60 minutes exposure to ISO 834 fire curve. The paper ends with concluding remarks on improving the bullet proof resistance of timber doors