Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection: Innovative Structures and Materials for Blast and Ballistic Protection

Damage to critical energy infrastructure as a result of terrorism, criminal activity or natural disaster can have a significant impact at both a national and international level. Reducing the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to protect populations is therefore a high priority for governments worldwide, and high-quality training courses and advanced technologies are imperative in this regard. This book presents edited contributions from the NATO Advanced Training Course (ATC) entitled ‘Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection: Innovative Structures and Materials for Blast and Ballistic Protection’, held as a virtual event from 22 - 25 March 2021. The principal aim of the course was to gather specialists from NATO member and partner countries interested in protecting their critical infrastructure against terrorist attacks, and to share research and practical experience in this field. The meeting provided a forum for participants and speakers to disseminate their recent work, and also served to promote the exchange of ideas and international cooperation among scientists and engineers. The focus was on the physical protection of critical infrastructure in the face of certain types of intentional threat or accident, such as explosions, impacts and blast waves, and the experts shared their experience on topics including the mitigation of risks, classification of vulnerabilities, improvement of resilience, advanced protective materials, dynamic testing of materials and structures, simulations, and numerical prediction methods. The book will be of interest to all those whose work involves protecting critical infrastructure from the threat of terrorist attacks.