doi:10.3850/978-981-08-6396-8_P152

ABSTRACT

The development and implementation of new technology to protect life and property from a catastrophic event against a nation’s infrastructure is a responsibility not taken lightly by any country, organization or company. The research and testing of technologies that are used to reduce the loss of life from damage to dams, levee’s, canals, bridges, or command and control centers is very complicated yet extremely important. Everyday the media presents images of infrastructure failures from terrorism, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes or other disasters. The infrastructure designs are typically comprised of high density, high mass materials that are very well characterized with decades, if not centuries, of proven use. However, failures still occur.

With the success of advanced polymeric materials for structural hardening and energy dissipation, validating their use for infrastructure protection is a logical progression. The concept of incorporating their use into specific sites for use against specific threats is easy to visualize. It is the validation of the advanced materials capability and performance against the threat that become critical.

This paper will discuss the extrapolation of proven engineered material successes to the conceptual incorporation into protective design for infrastructure.

Keywords: Protective design, Blast engineering, Blast resistant coatings.

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