Structures Under Shock and Impact

Structures Under Shock and Impact XIV contains the proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Structures under Shock and Impact, organized by the Wessex Institute. The contents address the need to protect civilian infrastructure and industrial facilities against unintentional loads arising from accidental impact and explosion events as well as terrorist attacks, and to develop effective and efficient blast mitigation approaches. The included papers thus examine how structures behave under a variety of load actions, some of which interact making it even more complex and difficult to define. The primary focus remains the survivability of physical facilities and the protection of people, as well as the reduction of economic losses and the impact on the environment. Applications range from transportation of dangerous or combustible materials to defences against natural hazard threats such as flood, wind, storm, tsunami and earthquake. Since large-scale testing is prohibitively expensive and small-scale laboratory testing results in scaling uncertainties, more use of advanced numerical simulations for load and structural response calculations is common practice in industry and research. Such calculations can be used directly in design and risk assessment calculations, but can also be applied as input to more simplified design tools and design codes. Whether numerical or analytical modelling techniques are employed, experimental validation is a vital part of the process for there to be acceptance of the approach to be used.Topics covered include: Impact and blast loading; Energy absorbing issues; Computational and experimental results; Aeronautical and aerospace applications; Response of reinforced concrete under impact; Response of buildings to blast; Seismic behaviour; Protection of existing structures; Industrial accidents and explosions; Hazard mitigation and assessment; Security issues; Dynamic analysis of composite structures; Design against failure; Damage limitation; Dynamics of nano materials; Vehicle impact; Projectile impact; Ballistics analysis; Structural resilience; Dynamic material behaviour.