Airblast Variability and Reliability-Based Design for Protective Structures

An understanding of airblast uncertainty allows reliability-based load factors to be calculated. Reliability-based load factors are influenced by the variability of model error, explosive mass and range distance, and are estimated for reliability levels of 0.05 to 0.99 for military, civilian and terrorist munitions. Structural reliabilities are then calculated for reinforced concrete columns, and compared to target values. It was found that RC columns designed to existing standards have a significant margin of safety conditional on successful detonation of the explosive and assuming a relatively low variability of range or explosive mass.The support of the Australian Research Council through Discovery Project DP160100855 is gratefully acknowledged

Study of blast effects on structures

Engineers have a duty to the public to preserve life and protect the community and occupants within structure that we build and use. All practicing engineers are obligated to foster the health, safety and wellbeing of the community and the environment. This involves acting on the basis of adequate knowledge and foreseeable risks that pose a potential hazard towards the built environment. The terrorism threat has evolved rapidly in scale and occurrences in recent history and with that the need to create resilient structures. This dissertation endeavours to undertake a study of the global blast loading effects on structures and identify techniques for improved structural resilience of critical elements. Blasts can be delivered by explosive events either deliberate, accidental or through indirect action. A historical review of case studies and blast incidents was undertaken to identify susceptible structures to blast and development of a structural model in order to simulate a credible scenario and understand the blast effects and predicting the design loading. The scope of the dissertation is restricted to the blast pressure disturbance effects interacting with a structure delivered by an external air blast and not considering the secondary effects of a blast incident including thermal and high velocity fragments. Common structural members and materials were used to devise a Finite Element model and simulate against the blast loading cases derived from empirical methods. Since the nature of blast load only lasting for a short time and undergoes constant change Non-Linear Transient Dynamic Analysis approach was well suited to undertaking this type of analysis. Some of the findings include whipping effects due to inertia as the structure accelerating from its initial position to develop resistance against the applied loading even after the applied load has ceased. The global response of a structure due to blast pressure, is generally a consequence of lateral or out-of-plane loading. Longer pressure phase durations tend to result in bending failures while impulsive loads (short pressure phase duration) lead to shear responses. Resilience techniques including steel UC encased in concrete, RC steel plate wraps and RC shear reinforcement lacing have the potential to improve the robustness of structural elements reducing overall displacements and stress responses

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Issue 21.1 (2017)

Feature: Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and Pressure Plate IED\u27s Spotlight: Bosnia and Herzegovina 2- years later Field Notes Research and Developmen

Decision-support system for safety and security assessment and management in smart cities

Counter-terrorism measures and preparedness play a critical role in securing mass gatherings, soft targets, and critical infrastructures within urban environments. This paper introduces a comprehensive Decision Support System developed as part of the S4AllCitites project, designed to seamlessly integrate with existing legacy systems in Smart Cities. The system encompasses urban pedestrian and vehicular evacuation, incorporating predictive models to anticipate the progression of incendiary and mass shooting attacks, alongside a probabilistic model for threat assessment in the case of improvised explosive devices. A notable achievement of this research is the successful implementation and deployment of the system in operational environments through pilot studies. It empowers public and private security operators with real time decision support capabilities during both prevention and intervention stages of potential attacks. The decision support information provided encompasses various aspects, including optimal evacuation strategies, estimated egress times, pedestrian movement profiles, probability assessments, and the potential impact of different terrorist threats in terms of casualties. Additionally, the system offers real-time insights into the status of the traffic network under normal and unusual conditions, enabling efficient emergency management throughout its progression. This includes the ability to identify optimal intervention routes and assess the impact of anomalous traffic resulting from evacuations

Resilience management processes in the offshore wind industry: Schematization and application to an export cable attack

Offshore wind energy (OWE) production is a crucial element for increasing the amount of renewable energy. Consequently, one can observe a strong and constant rise of the OWE industry, turning it to an important contributor of national energy provision. This trend, however, is accompanied by increasing pressure on the reliability, safety, and security of the OWE infrastructure. Related security threats are characterized by high uncertainty regarding impact and probability leading to considerable complication of the risk assessment. On the other hand, the resilience concept emphasizes the consideration of the system’s response to such threats, and thus, offers a solution for dealing with the high uncertainty. In this work, we present an approach for combining the strengths of risk and resilience management to provide a solution for handling security threats in OWE infrastructures. Within this context, we introduce a quality assessment enabling the quantification of the trustworthiness of obtained results

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction Issue 23.3 (2020)

Southeast Asia | Risk Management | Cluster Munitions Remnants Survey | IMAS Training in Vietnam | Mine Risk Education | Victim Assistance | Underwater Clearance | Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality in HMA | HMA in the Gray Zone | IED Clearance Capacity in Afghanista

Synchronic Analysis of Adversarial Attacks in Syria Committed by the Islamic State

Militarized technologies, large support infrastructures, and the unintended consequences of increased violence demonstrate that the current strategies are unsustainable to end modern conflict. However, the potential exists to precisely identify patterns from empirically reduced adversarial behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental synchronic retrospective analysis was to determine the relationship between the distance, fatalities, and time (independent variables) to the hazard force (dependent variable) executed by ISIS in Syria between the years 2007 to 2015. A data set containing 12,326 records for attacks committed by U.S. adversaries in 20 countries between the years of 2007-2015 was analyzed using multiple linear regression. The theoretical foundation for this study was based on symmetrical and asymmetrical applied gaming theory, which differentiates between adversarial sizes and strategies. According to this theory, the potential direction between two attacks occurs because (a) adversaries operate with rationality, and (b) between any two targets (A and B); the rational preference is determined when the ratio of value of B over A is greater than A over B. This rational preference was calculated as intensity and was called hazard force. The analysis demonstrated a statistically significant association between fatalities and distance. The potential for positive social change as a result of this study may be through modeling adversarial events more accurately, reducing human costs, and redirecting finite resources to greater human endeavors, or creating policies with greater efficacy

Tier 1 Highway Security Sensitive Material Dynamic Risk Management

Each year, over 2 billion tons of hazardous materials are shipped in the United States, with over half of that being moved on commercial vehicles. Given their relatively poor or nonexistent defenses and inconspicuousness, commercial vehicles transporting hazardous materials are an easy target for terrorists. Before carriers or security agencies recognize that something is amiss, their contents could be detonated or released. From 2006 to 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) recorded 144,643 incidents involving a release of hazardous materials. Although there were no known instances of terrorism being the cause, accidental releases involving trucks carrying hazardous materials are not an uncommon occurrence. At this time, no systems have been developed and operationalized to monitor the movement of vehicles transporting hazardous materials. The purpose of this dissertation is to propose a comprehensive risk management system for monitoring Tier 1 Highway Security Sensitive Materials (HSSMs) which are shipped aboard commercial vehicles in the U.S. Chapter 2 examines the history and current state of hazardous materials transportation. Since the late 19th century, the federal government often introduced new regulations in response to hazardous materials incidents. However, over the past 15 years few binding policies or legislation have been enacted. This demonstrates that government agencies and the U.S. Congress are not inclined to introduce new laws and rules that could hamper business. In 2003, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and other agencies led efforts to develop a prototype hazardous materials tracking system (PHTS) that mapped the location of hazardous materials shipments and quantified the level of risk associated with each one. The second half of this chapter uses an in-­‐depth gap analysis to identify deficiencies and demonstrate in what areas the prototype system does not comply with government specifications. Chapter 3 addresses the lack of customized risk equations for Tier 1 HSSMs and develops a new set of risk equations that can be used to dynamically evaluate the level of risk associated with individual hazardous materials shipments. This chapter also discusses the results of a survey that was administered to public and private industry stakeholders. Its purpose was to understand the current state of hazardous materials regulations, the likelihood of hazardous materials release scenarios, what precautionary measures can be used, and what influence social variables may have on the aggregate consequences of a hazardous materials release. The risk equation developed in this paper takes into account the survey responses as well as those risk structures already in place. The overriding goal is to preserve analytical tractability, implement a form that is usable by federal agencies, and provide stakeholders with accurate information about the risk profiles of different vehicles. Due to congressional inaction on hazardous 3 materials transportation issues, securing support from carriers and other industry stakeholders is the most viable solution to bolstering hazardous materials security. Chapter 4 presents the system architecture for The Dynamic Hazardous Materials Risk Assessment Framework (DHMRA), a GIS-­‐based environment in which hazardous materials shipments can be monitored in real time. A case study is used to demonstrate the proposed risk equation; it simulates a hazardous materials shipment traveling from Ashland, Kentucky to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The DHMRA maps risk data, affording security personnel and other stakeholders the opportunity to evaluate how and why risk profiles vary across time and space. DHRMA’s geo-­‐fencing capabilities also trigger automatic warnings. This framework, once fully implemented, can inform more targeted policies to enhance the security of hazardous materials. It will contribute to maintaining secure and efficient supply chains while protecting the communities that live nearest to the most heavily trafficked routes. Continuously monitoring hazardous materials provides a viable way to understand the risks presented by a shipment at a given moment and enables better, more coordinated responses in the event of a release. Implementation of DHRMA will be challenging because it requires material and procedural changes that could disrupt agency operations or business practices — at least temporarily. Nevertheless, DHRMA stands ready for implementation, and to make the shipment of hazardous materials a more secure, safe, and certain process. Although DHMRA was designed primarily with terrorism in mind, it is also useful for examining the impacts of accidental hazardous materials releases. Future iterations of DHMRA could expand on its capabilities by incorporating modeling data on the release and dispersion of toxic gases, liquids, and other substances

MODELLING VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT FOR ADVANCED NAVAL SIMULATION

This thesis proposes a new virtual simulation environment designed as element of an interoperable federation of simulator to support the investigation of complex scenarios over the Extended Maritime Framework (EMF). Extended Maritime Framework is six spaces environment (Underwater, Water surface, Ground, Air, Space, and Cyberspace) where parties involved in Joint Naval Operations act. The amount of unmanned vehicles involved in the simulation arise the importance of the Communication modelling, thus the relevance of Cyberspace. The research is applied to complex cases (one applied to deep waters and one to coast and littoral protection) as examples to validate this approach; these cases involve different kind of traditional assets (e.g. satellites, helicopters, ships, submarines, underwater sensor infrastructure, etc.) interact dynamically and collaborate with new autonomous systems (i.e. AUV, Gliders, USV and UAV). The use of virtual simulation is devoted to support validation of new concepts and investigation of collaborative engineering solutions by providing a virtual representation of the current situation; this approach support the creation of dynamic interoperable immersive framework that could support training for Man in the Loop, education and tactical decision introducing the Man on the Loop concepts. The research and development of the Autonomous Underwater Vehicles requires continuous testing so a time effective approach can result a very useful tool. In this context the simulation can be useful to better understand the behaviour of Unmanned Vehicles and to avoid useless experimentations and their costs finding problems before doing them. This research project proposes the creation of a virtual environment with the aim to see and understand a Joint Naval Scenario. The study will be focusing especially on the integration of Autonomous Systems with traditional assets; the proposed simulation deals especially with collaborative operation involving different types of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV), Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV) and UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The author develops an interoperable virtual simulation devoted to present the overall situation for supervision considering also the sensor capabilities, communications and mission effectiveness that results dependent of the different asset interaction over a complex heterogeneous network. The aim of this research is to develop a flexible virtual simulation solution as crucial element of an HLA federation able to address the complexity of Extended Maritime Framework (EMF). Indeed this new generation of marine interoperable simulation is a strategic advantage for investigating the problems related to the operational use of autonomous systems and to finding new ways to use them respect to different scenarios. The research deal with the creation of two scenarios, one related to military operations and another one on coastal and littoral protection where the virtual simulation propose the overall situation and allows to navigate into the virtual world considering the complex physics affecting movement, perception, interaction and communication. By this approach, it becomes evident the capability to identify, by experimental analysis within the virtual world, the new solutions in terms of engineering and technological configuration of the different systems and vehicles as well as new operational models and tactics to address the specific mission environment. The case of study is a maritime scenario with a representation of heterogeneous network frameworks that involves multiple vehicles both naval and aerial including AUVs, USVs, gliders, helicopter, ships, submarines, satellite, buoys and sensors. For the sake of clarity aerial communications will be represented divided from underwater ones. A connection point for the latter will be set on the keel line of surface vessels representing communication happening via acoustic modem. To represent limits in underwater communications, underwater signals have been considerably slowed down in order to have a more realistic comparison with aerial ones. A maximum communication distance is set, beyond which no communication can take place. To ensure interoperability the HLA Standard (IEEE 1516 evolved) is adopted to federate other simulators so to allow its extensibility for other case studies. Two different scenarios are modelled in 3D visualization: Open Water and Port Protection. The first one aims to simulate interactions between traditional assets in Extended Maritime Framework (EMF) such as satellite, navy ships, submarines, NATO Research Vessels (NRVs), helicopters, with new generation unmanned assets as AUV, Gliders, UAV, USV and the mutual advantage the subjects involved in the scenario can have; in other word, the increase in persistence, interoperability and efficacy. The second scenario models the behaviour of unmanned assets, an AUV and an USV, patrolling a harbour to find possible threats. This aims to develop an algorithm to lead patrolling path toward an optimum, guaranteeing a high probability of success in the safest way reducing human involvement in the scenario. End users of the simulation face a graphical 3D representation of the scenario where assets would be represented. He can moves in the scenario through a Free Camera in Graphic User Interface (GUI) configured to entitle users to move around the scene and observe the 3D sea scenario. In this way, players are able to move freely in the synthetic environment in order to choose the best perspective of the scene. The work is intended to provide a valid tool to evaluate the defencelessness of on-shore and offshore critical infrastructures that could includes the use of new technologies to take care of security best and preserve themselves against disasters both on economical and environmental ones

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction, Issue 24.1 (2020)

Mine Action on the Korean Peninsula Raising the Profile of Mine Action A New Approach to IMAS Compliance Disposal of EO and Environmental Risk Mitigation Explosive Ordnance Risk Education - Measuring Behavior Chang