KARAGOZIAN & CASE, INC. — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: AF161-109

Description

ABSTRACT: The overall goal for this project is to demonstrate the feasibility of a methodology to develop advanced cumulative-damage models that predict time-dependent deflection, spalling, breach, secondary debris generation, and the incremental damage state for structural components of urban structures subject to multiple weapon detonations.This effort builds on previous work conducted by K&C and ACTA in (1) analytically modeling the behaviors of walls to multiple hits and (2) developing a High Fidelity Physics Based (HFPB) fast-running model (FRM) for modeling cumulative damage resulting from multi-hits scenarios.In this proposal an urban cumulative damage FRM (UCD-FRM), incorporating the complicated physics involved in multiple loadings leading to local and global failure of structural components will be developed.The methodology proposed to develop the UCD-FRM is general in nature and can be readily extended to other structural components or systems and for loadings other than blast and fragmentation.The broad methodology developed under this effort will provide a rational approach for the stochastic consideration of accumulated or cyclic damage and has broad applicability across a range of industries where consideration of accumulated damage and the associated requirements for repair, maintenance and replacement is critical, such as the energy, utility and transportation industries.; BENEFIT: As a science and engineering consulting company actively involved in a multitude of government and private industries including building construction, defense, anti-terrorism, petrochemical plant safety, and nuclear plant and infrastructure safety, K&C is in an excellent position to market, commercialize, and transition the technologies developed under this project. These clients, especially related to their overseas operations, have particular concerns related to the risks engendered by blast and fragmentation loading as well as cumulative damage effects in a fast-running engineering tool, as well as the application of techniques to account for accumulated or cyclic loading in a stochastic manner.The U.S. defense community is another clear market for this technology, which also has interest in the resilience of structures and having the ability to evaluate the effects of cumulative damage. In this regard, the stochastic approach to be taken to modeling cumulative damage will be especially of interest since the probability of a particular outcome in a cumulative damage targeting problem should reflect the uncertainties involved if it is to be useful.