Sandblasting erosion tests were simulated in laboratory to study the size distribution of defects generated by sandstorms in the Saharan regions on soda-lime glass, considering different velocities (V=15, 25, 35m/s) and different impact angles. The influence of these two parameters on the defect sizes and the defect number was studied. The defect sizes wer measured on a surface of 1cm2 in the central zone of the damaged surfaces. The damaged surfaces show that the defects with varying sizes are randomly distributed. The surface degradation increases as the velocity and the impact angle increase. Weibull analysis was introduced to characterize the size distribution of surface defects for different test conditions. Weibull plots indicate that the behaviour is presented following 2 aspects: the first is unimodal which exists only in two extreme conditions, and the second aspect is bimodal, but only for intermediate cases.
