Counterterrorism civil engineering design

Because of the increasing concern about terrorist attacks, engineers have shown a substantial interest in making buildings safer for people. In order to come up with the most adequate design, experts have to carefully define the level of risk on the new structure, since people don't want to live in bunker-like buildings. Then, a good understanding of explosive devices will be a major help to keep the damage localized, preventing the overall collapse of the structure which can cause a lot more deaths than the explosion itself. The first and most important parameter is to secure the building's perimeter by increasing the standoff distance or by using security devices such as gates or even bollards around the building; careful site planning is essential and it costs a loss less when accounted for early in the design phase. Also, a wise choice of construction materials will mitigate blast effects; windows, doors, HVAC and firefighting systems should be designed to save lives and to not cause more injuries! Finally, the major driver for a successful blast protection is designing redundancies to carry the additional loads imposed by an explosion; structural members will therefore work as mediators for alternate load paths in the case of damage of their neighboring members.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Jreissati, Wadih J. (Wadih Joseph), 1980-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jerome J. Connor.

• Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29555

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29555