Munitions Effects on Building Infrastructure Components

Functional Kill of buildings and below-ground structures is becoming an increasing area of concern for war fighters. Functional Kill refers to defeating a building by rendering it or its contents (infrastructure) functionally incapable of performing the overall mission for which the building was designed. AFRL/RWPL is seeking innovative methods to accomplish the modeling of Functional Kill. ACTA proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of several innovative methods for modeling building infrastructure within the Smart Target Model Generator (STMG) and to demonstrate the feasibility of a general and practical methodology for high-fidelity physics-based (HFPB) Fast Running Models (FRM"s) for predicting the probable effects of munitions on the functionality of building infrastructure components. Finally, the feasibility of integrating the FRM"s within the enhanced STMG/MEVA framework will be demonstrated. BENEFIT: Numerous government agencies, all military branches, and the majority of industry are required to estimate risks and maximum probable loss to buildings and equipment arising from terrorist threats and accidental explosions. Existing methodologies for infrastructure vulnerability are few, largely heuristic, and do not account for uncertainty. Most demonstrated consequence models require extremely long run times and are unsuitable outside a research context. The development of HFPB Fast Running Models for predicting the probable effects of munitions on building infrastructure will remedy this widespread need. Integration of these FRM"s within STMG/MEVA will provide AFRL/RWPL with a greatly enhanced ability to assess functional kill under different scenarios, accounting for uncertainty. Availability of infrastructure component models will also greatly improve the ability of planners to mitigate potential threats.