Ebook: Critical Infrastructure Protection

Recent decades have been marked by an increasing number of terrorist attacks which have necessitated the development of more efficient global security policies. Among many examples, this is well illustrated by current policies to protect the critical infrastructure.

The proposed Advanced Training Course (ATC) on the protection of critical infrastructure is closely related to the rapidly changing situation of national internal security, taking into account the rapid increase in various terror acts. It is very important to create an awareness of the safety and security challenges concerning the design of the protective elements of critical infrastructure in all NATO and Partner Countries. The main idea of the event is that specialists working in the area of technical protection will share their knowledge and expertise to ensure the safety and security of built objects belonging to the critical infrastructure in NATO and Partner Countries. Different countries have a different experience of the development and deployment of protection; that is why such courses are necessary to promote a joint and uniform effort to enhance the safety and security of protective infrastructure.

Various national legal requirements also exist, so one lecture block is dedicated to important legal aspects. The other main topics to be discussed include: the structural design and protection of critical infrastructure, new materials and material analysis, and material and construction testing at elevated impact velocities via experiment and numerical simulation. New designs for critical infrastructure elements will be shown.

An ATC event is designed to facilitate mutually beneficial cooperation between NATO and Partner Countries on issues of common interest including international efforts to meet emerging critical infrastructure security challenges as one important form of counter-terrorism.

The participants are experienced scientists and industry engineers from NATO and Partner countries actively involved in technical protection of the critical infrastructure.

We trust that this ATC NATO SPS workshop will serve as the ideal forum for all those gathered to build the knowledge, skills, and networks needed to address today's international concerns about the safety of the critical infrastructure.

We are happy it is taking place in Morocco.

Dr Ilias Majdouline

Director of The Polytechnic School of Agadir

Vice-president of Universiapolis

Running of the states highly depends on accurate functioning of the critical infrastructure systems. Failure of one system can lead to massive damage or negative consequence on many others critical infrastructure systems due to their affiliation. Critical infrastructure is threatened not only by potential attacks but also accidents, natural disasters, and many other catastrophes. For these reasons, it is decidedly important to constantly improve the way of protection and preventive actions for the purpose of its protection. The present paper is focused n the critical infrastructure systems and describes innovative methods of protection of CI developed at Ernst Mach Institute – EMI and in Joint Research Centre – JRC.

An intentional and coordinated destruction of facilities can affect economies of countries, create social and political upheavals. We prove that features of modern quadcopters are sufficient for their possible use for terrorist purposes at industrial facilities. It is determined, that the property damage, caused by a UAV, can exceed the cost of the quadcopter and used explosive in 500000 times and even more.

The changed geopolitical situation, terrorist attacks, and innovation of informatics systems caused a pressing challenge for the world. Defence forces during asymmetric operation have new enemies who use urbanization affected advantages [1]. Defence of formerly building public facilities, support of staff and clients also to the defence of system apparatus tasks' needs a hinder solution for information security damage and assurance of the TEMPEST defence [2]. It is important to prohibit any opportunity of a radio impulse activated by an explosion in a building (Improvised Explosive Device IED). Radio wave transfer decrease or isolation can be solved by a special wall on the base on the Faraday cage. This is the best solution for using a metal coating on the wall. These composites can be built from metal foams or composite metal foams. The coating can also be built from polymer base metal parts. Numerous kinds of composites can be constructed, but the requirements are rigorous. The innovated material needs to be fire resistant and splinter-proof. The tests of these materials also need a special method to simulate and model special stress and special radiation effects. Nowadays, living in the information technology age, the possession of information is the power of living and working safely in our countries and knowing our virtual goods are secured against terrorists and enemies. Its assurance is a big challenge and it needs a lot of innovation supported by cyber and material science.

The paper deals with all the aspects of blast loaded windows, presenting a comprehensive view of the design of blast loaded windows, their testing and assessment. The purpose of this paper is to summarize respective standards in the area of blast windows. The paper is divided into several parts. The first one is focused on the design procedure and various methods of blast testing, the last section is dedicated to specific methods on how to increase and improve the protection of such structure.

High-rate elastic-plastic deformation of elements of modern technology is considered. Changes of properties of materials in a process of deformation under the action of impact and impulse loads are taken into account. Experimental studies to determine parameters of dynamic properties of material are reported. On the basis of three-dimensional models and numerical methods, an analysis of a stress-strain state of structural elements is carried out. The analysis of parameters of technological processes, proceeding at the expense of energy of explosion, is carried out. Calculation-experimental methods for analysis of deformation of cylindrical elements under impact loads are considered. The investigation results are used in practice.

High-rate elastic-plastic deformation of elements of modern constructions in three-dimensional formulation is considered. Changes of properties of materials in a process of deformation under impact and impulse loads are taken into account. Modelling of the processes of high-rate deformation with involved dynamic properties of materials and finite displacements is carried out. A dynamic stress-strain state of structural elements, based on a finite element, is analyzed. Comparison with known results and experimental data is given. Practical problems of analyzing the stress-strain state of elements of facing vehicles and gas turbine engine corps under shock loading are considered. The advantage of multilayered protective elements for local shock loads is presented in the paper.

The aim of the paper is to provide an expert opinion on the issue of improvised explosive devices, their characterisation, classification, and construction. Their explosive effect is described in the next step. Major part of the paper is focused on the proposed methodology for estimation of explosive charge size, which was used in terrorist attack. The methodology is based on the analysis of a damage level of buildings in the surrounding of the explosion. On the base of a damage level of buildings, the weight and type of the used explosive is estimated.

Building protection in our century is very important because of terrorist attacks. Old buildings in Europe are not enough strong against blast loads. Nowadays, we know many different explosives and their effects on walls and human bodies. Detonations caused by blast effect provoke building damage and fragmentation effects. The explosion causes damages and next parts of bricks and fragments produce other secondary damages in other buildings and human bodies. New possibilities to improve the resistance of buildings against blast effects need to be found. It requires effectively thin and strong materials to reinforce the walls of a building. New materials innovated by material science can be a good solution for this project. These materials are usually composites like syntactic foams, spherical shells or carbon fields reinforced composites. In the last century designed, old, maybe world heritage or critical infrastructure buildings, used sometimes for public service offices, were planned without the calculation of special shock load. It is impossible to protect these buildings thanks to new curtain construction without changes in the city landscape. New materials, absorbing high-energy can be useful for increasing the defence capabilities of these buildings. New composites and metal foams innovated by material science would be suitable.

Glass, due to several motivations, attracts the attention of architects and designers. Especially in the last two decades, the use of glass in buildings in the form of load-bearing material increased significantly. On one hand, the architectural impact of wide glass surfaces is a key aspect for designers. On the other hand, however, glass facades and structures are highly vulnerable to extreme loads, especially terroristic attacks, and should be designed to provide appropriate protection to the occupants. In this paper, a brief insight into design concepts and trends, as well as methods in use for the optimisation of glass structures under blast loads is reported, with careful consideration for glass facades.

Experimental analysis on standard brass alloy has been carried out using a high pressure gas gun. Perforation tests have been performed for a variety of impact velocities from 40 to 120 m/s in order to study the material behaviour and to define failure modes.

The main aim of the study has been to provide results using an innovative thermal chamber that allows us to heat specimens before impact. The range of available temperatures is from the room temperature up to 260°C. The experimental study has allowed to discuss the ballistic properties of the structure. The ballistic resistance of sheet plates is strongly dependent on the material behaviour under dynamic loading and changes with temperature. The ballistic properties are also intensely related to interaction between the projectile and thin brass target. The results in terms of the ballistic curve V_R (residual velocity) versus V₀ (initial velocity) have shown the temperature effect on the residual kinetic energy and thus, on the energy absorbed by the plate, revealing a thermal softening of the brass. The ballistic limit, corresponding to the maximum impact velocity without complete perforation, has decreased by 5–7% for the highest temperature considered. A changing failure pattern is observed. The number of petals varies as a function of impact velocity and temperature. It can be concluded based on experimental observations that thermal softening is a key point on the process of perforation. Preliminary temperature records have been provided using a thermal imaging camera.

The Empirical ConWep, Multi-Material Arbitrary-Language-Euler (MM-ALE) and Smooth-Particle-Hydrodynamics (SPH) are most widely used methods for numerical evaluation of blast-loaded structures. They differ in the possibilities they offer, their computational efficiency as well as the required scientific and numerical knowledge for their proper and effective usage. They have their own advantages and disadvantages depending also on the structural geometry and its relative position with regard to the blast wave source location. In this paper, the results comparison of a detailed numerical examination using the ConWep, MM-ALE, and SPH methods is presented. The simulation tests were performed using armour steel plates in LS-DYNA. The comparison results showed that the ConWep and SPH methods offer better results and efficiency and require a lower level of user experience compared to the MM-ALE method. The results of this paper are important in the decision making process, when selecting an appropriate method for blast response analyses of structures.

Finite element method procedures of solution of masonry walls during non-stationary dynamic processes allow taking into calculations tensile and shearing strengths of brick and mortar, as well as, geometrical non-linear behaviour of those brick walls, i.e., large displacements, rotation and bending at conditions of three dimensional state of deformation. Numerical results obtained for 3D-deformation and failure process of brick wall model with a thickness of 0.25 m, 2 m in length and 0.54 m in height loaded explosively in variants of charge mass 1 kg and 1.8 kg at the distance of 2 m were compatible qualitatively with experimental results for this considered wall analyzed for various types of its reinforcements. These retrofits have caused considerable resistance of such protective masonry wall against explosive aerial shock wave.