Wed, 2015-12-30

Wed, 2015-09-09

Thu, 2015-12-03

Abstract

It is important to protect critical buildings (shopping centres, government buildings and embassies), infrastructure and utilities and train and underground stations from getting damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism, criminal activity and malicious behaviour. Normal regulations and building guidelines do not generally take these threats into account. The introduction of appropriate regulations or guidelines, where deemed necessary, should enhance the resilience of buildings and infrastructures against explosion incidents.

In order to protect the infrastructure, testing methods which can answer the question as to whether certain building elements can withstand certain loading conditions created by an explosive event are required.

The applicable state-of-the-art techniques may include either experimental or numerical methods, or a combination of both. Therefore, the thematic group (TG) on the resistance of structures to explosion effects was formed in order to bring the required expertise together, to make it commonly available and to find and define harmonised methods and solutions which can be provided to the decision-makers responsible for critical infrastructure protection. The TG described in a first report (JPC87202) the physical phenomena which have to be understood in order to ensure a proper testing of the elements and a correct interpretation of the results. In a second stage, the differences between the existing standards for testing blast-resistant glazing and windows have been derived, and a basis for fundamental recommendations for the future development of the suite of European standards has been addressed (JRC94930). Based on the prior findings, this report now formulates the proper enhancements of the existing standards in terms of actual recommendations for the improvement of the test standards.

Tue, 2015-05-19

Abstract

It is important to protect critical buildings (shopping centres, government buildings and embassies), infrastructure and utilities, train and underground stations against being damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism, criminal activity and malicious behaviour. Normal regulations and building guidelines do not generally take into account these threats. The introduction of appropriate regulations or guidelines, where deemed necessary, should, enhance the resilience of buildings and infrastructure against explosion incidents. In order to protect the built infrastructure, methods are required to quantify the resistance of structural components against explosive loading and to assess the hazards resulting from the failure of an element. The applicable state of-the-art techniques may include either experimental or numerical methods, or a combination of both. Therefore, the thematic group (TG) on the resistance of structures to explosion effects was formed in order to bring the required expertise together, make it commonly available and to find and define harmonised methods and solutions which can be provided to the decision-makers responsible for critical infrastructure protection. This report discusses the differences between the existing standards for testing blast resistant glazing and windows and presents basic recommendations for the future development of the suite of European standards in this area.

Tue, 2015-05-19

Abstract

It is important to protect critical buildings (shopping centres, government buildings and embassies), infrastructure and utilities, train and underground stations against being damaged, destroyed or disrupted by deliberate acts of terrorism, criminal activity and malicious behaviour. Normal regulations and building guidelines do not generally take into account these threats. The introduction of appropriate regulations or guidelines, where deemed necessary, should, enhance the resilience of buildings and infrastructure against explosion incidents. In order to protect the built infrastructure, methods are required to quantify the resistance of structural components against explosive loading and to assess the hazards resulting from the failure of an element. The applicable state-of-the-art techniques may include either experimental or numerical methods, or a combination of both. Therefore, the thematic group (TG) on the resistance of structures to explosion effects was formed in order to bring the required expertise together, make it commonly available and to find and define harmonised methods and solutions which can be provided to the decision-makers responsible for critical infrastructure protection. The current report summarizes existing best practices for the numerical finite element modelling of blast loading, including the important topics of domain discretisation, implicit/explicit formulation, Lagrangian/Eulerian solvers, the mathematical description of the material behaviour etc. Furthermore recommendations for the modelling of laminated glass elements are formulated and knowledge gaps in this application area are pointed out. Hence the report builds the basis for an actual evaluation of the different numerical methods, their suitability to certain problems, and their capability to support/complement the experimental testing of glass components. It thus provides helpful information to design architects and engineers, and more generally to critical infrastructure stakeholders, responsible for the structural integrity and security of the infrastructure in case of an explosion.

Sun, 2015-07-05

Abstract

Biometric identity technology, such as fingerprint, iris or face recognition, is foreseen to become more and more common for access control to critical infrastructure and for travel documents. Test and evaluation presents challenges of scale because the required correct identification rates are often high and the acceptable false alarm rate low, so very many test data records must be run to determine the performance.

Sun, 2015-07-05

Abstract

Biometric technologies have advanced considerably over the past decade, and have paved the way for more widespread use by governments, commercial enterprises and, more recently, by the consumer through the introduction of sensors and apps on mobile phones. This report provides introductory information about the application of these technologies to achieve secure recognition of individuals by organisations which form part of critical infrastructures in the EU. As a specific example, it offers guidance about the implementation of physical access control systems using biometric technologies. It is principally addressed at managers and security officers within these organisations. With the information in this report, managers and officers should be in a better position to discuss their specific requirements with technology suppliers, specialist systems integrators and consultants – and therefore lead to applications which are more secure without compromising on their usability. The report emphasises the importance of considering the effectiveness of the entire application – and not just focussing on the performance of the biometric subsystem. Note that the representation of specific devices does not imply any recommendation by the authors or the European Commission.

Fri, 2015-07-03

Abstract

There is a significant potential in the use of unmanned remote controlled vehicles in sampling and measuring radiological events. No attempts to standardise sampling and measurement methods using these types of vehicles have yet been made. Common standards would simplify the use of remote controlled vehicles in an emergency scenario and would thus be very valuable in critical infrastructure protection (CIP). The main advantage of using unmanned systems in radiological events is the protection of the human personnel involved. This report is about current state-of-the-art of unmanned systems that have potential to be used for radiation measurements and sampling. It is believed that search and rescue robotics is the domain that is closest to the robots applicable to the radiation measurement scenarios. Therefore, a definition for search and rescue robots and outlines of their major subsystems are given. This is followed by a review of deployment scenarios for search and rescue robots outlining case studies of major emergencies at which robots have been deployed — with an assessment of their value to the emergency services. Additionally, research and development in search and rescue robotics, including current projects, testing environments and search and rescue robotics competitions, is outlined. Furthermore, this report shows unmanned robots and concepts for sensor systems capable of radiation detection based on state-of-the-art radiation sampling using unmanned ground vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles with rotary wings or unmanned aerial vehicles with fixed wings.

Fri, 2015-07-03

Abstract

There is significant potential for the use of unmanned remote control vehicles in sampling and measuring radiological events. No attempt to standardise sampling and measurement methods using these types of vehicles has been made so far. Common standards would simplify the use of remote control vehicles in an emergency scenario and would thus be very valuable in critical infrastructure protection. The main advantage of using unmanned systems in radiological events is the protection of the involved human personnel. This document focuses on possible scenarios for remote control radiation measurements and sampling using unmanned systems. We identified scenarios that can be separated in two categories. First, there are prevention scenarios where unmanned systems can be used to prevent incidents involving radioactive material and deterrence. Second, there are response scenarios where unmanned systems can be used to gather information after incidents with radioactive material have occurred. We further condensed three main tasks (spatial mapping, search of sources and sampling) for unmanned systems in the identified scenarios. In addition, this report summarises possible standards for unmanned systems. A very widely recognised standard collection of software frameworks for robot software development is the robot operating system. Further important standards concerning communication with robots and control of unmanned systems are battle management language, interoperability profile and joint architecture for unmanned systems.

Tue, 2015-05-19