The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is instrumental in developing technology to better prepare our nation’s (and the Earth’s) buildings and infrastructure against devastating terrorist attacks.
Much of the technology is also instrumental in developing better protection against natural disasters, such as earthquake.
Recently, Frieder Seible, dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD, gave a presentation to the public as part of the ongoing lecture series Frontiers in Science and Technology.
The presentations are in partnership with the UCSD Jacobs School Corporate Affiliates Program. The Frontiers in Science and Technology lecture series aims to enhance the dialogue between the business community and San Diego’s leading scientists, engineers and researchers.
These lunchtime seminars provide access to research efforts also under way at San Diego State University, The Salk Institute, The Burnham Institute and other research institutes.
The theme this time around was “Protecting Our Infrastructure Against Terrorist Attacks.”
The focus of shielding existing buildings, bridges and structures is to develop and test new technologies that better protect buildings against various types of terrorist attacks from bombs.
“We are broadening efforts today in direct benefit of society,” Seible said. “We are developing technology to better protect bridges, buildings, offshore drilling structures, whatever; anything where a building or facility’s infrastructure can be compromised. We must stay ahead, because there are always bigger bombs and more explosives. Terrorists are becoming very creative.”
To achieve program goals, Seible, UCSD structural engineers and another team of industry and university partners developed and are better able to evaluate blast mitigation technologies to harden structures against terrorist bomb attacks through a new $7.5 million federal contract.
The plan is to conduct more than 40 tests between mid-2005 and the end of 2007 in the new Jacobs School of Engineering blast simulator laboratory, which is called the Englekirk Structural Research Center.
The blast mitigation program is supported by the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG), a federal interagency organization that combats terrorism.
In 2003 and 2004, TSWG awarded UCSD contracts totaling $8.6 million to construct the blast simulator. The newest contract brings cumulative support for the blast mitigation program to $16.1 million.
Partners in the UCSD blast-mitigation testing program include Karagozian and Case (K&C) and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). These organizations aid in computational analysis required to design tests. K&C and SAIC also develop predictive computer tools based on testing results. MTS Systems Corp., the company that originally built the UCSD blast simulator, will continue to enhance the equipment in preparation for the blast load simulations.
In addition, the Energetic Materials Research and Testing Center at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will oversee a series of explosive field tests that will help validate UCSD’s laboratory results. Structural Group is providing blast mitigation technologies for the test specimens.
UCSD’s blast simulator is the world’s first laboratory to simulate the effects of bombs without the use of explosive materials.
Seible leads the project along with structural engineering professor Gil Hegemier.
Each test or blast simulation as part of the program is captured on videotape so that scientists can better study the dynamics of an explosion.
“What can a structure stand in relation to an explosion?” Seible asked early in the presentation. “With this method, we have visualization of response. What really happens to the structure? With these type cameras and case study, we see the effect, both before and after, and not so much during.”
Seible showed video of various explosions created within the program, including a simulation of the terrorist bombing of a tourist district in October 2002 on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The attack, which was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia, killing 202 and injuring 209, involved the detonation of three bombs. A backpack-mounted device carried by a suicide bomber and a large car bomb were both detonated in or near popular nightclubs in Kuta. The third blast was a much smaller device detonated outside the United States’ consulate in Denpasar, causing only minor damage.
Seible showed video from other blast simulations, including that of a four-story concrete structure designed and constructed with steel pillars that provide much of its structural integrity.
From this controlled testing, Seible and his colleagues furthered the development of techniques to retrofit weightbearing portions of structures by wrapping these columns with a carbon-fiber material much like that used in seismic retrofitting of California’s many highway and freeway bridges.
From this program, UCSD, in conjunction with the U.S. State Department, evolved the technology for use in buildings such as embassies and federal buildings, on bridges and in courthouses.
In addition to sites around the American Southwest, UCSD has the Powell Structural Facility located on old Camp Elliott in the Miramar area of San Diego. This facility houses one of the world’s largest outdoor shake tables, where wind turbines and single-family homes can be wobbled in order to see effects from simulated earthquakes.
“UCSD and Powell pride ourselves to develop innovative programs and systems to monitor and test vital structures,” Seible said. “Some told us it could never be done. ‘It’ll never work.’ They said, ‘You are all crazy.’ But look what we’ve done.”
The next Frontiers in Science and Technology lunchtime seminar on April 26 is “Cross-Talk Between Stem Cells and the Neurodegenerative Environment.” It will be presented by Evan Snyder, professor and director, Stem Cell and Regeneration Program at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research.
The ongoing presentation series addresses a variety of topics on a monthly basis. The series is held at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center on the UCSD campus, 950 Gilman Drive. For information, visit www.connect.org.