Homeland Defense Journal, Volume 5, Issue 3, reports:

Applied Science International has developed a new technology that models and simulates the behavior of structures subjected to explosions, earthquakes, hurricane force winds and progressive collapses. Collectively classified as extreme loading conditions, the amount and duration of the forces applied are what need to be understood in order to prevent disastrous consequences. Accurate vulnerability and Risk assessment is what ASI’s breakthrough technology provides in the face of both man-made and natural threats.

ASI developed the ability to create a near virtual reality scenario, allowing its clients to see a full motion video of what will happen when an event takes place, whether it’s a bomb within a building’s perimeter, an earthquake underneath it, or a hurricane assaulting it from the side. ASI’s risk assessment service takes the guess work out of decision-making by partnering with building owners, security providers, property management firms, structural engineers, insurance underwriters and demolition contractors to leverage expertise during the assessment process. ASI’s team of scientists and engineers has improved the risk assessment processes and progressive collapse guidance now available in FEMA, DoD and USACE publications.

ASI developed the applied element method (AEM) to more closely approximate reality than the standard finite element method (FEM). AEM simulations allow elements to separate during failure and collide with adjacent elements; the way it really happens. FEM simulations appear as melting plastic models with no separation of elements. ASI can easily model a glass panel or multi-layered panels and connections and simulate behavior under extreme loads, contributing significantly to material selection, casualty assessment and wind-blown hazard analysis.

ASI’s AEM-based tools model and simulate threat scenarios, in hours not days. This rapid prototyping capability allows engineers and security firms to consider performance-based design options more quickly and thoroughly, in days not weeks. Visualising predicted structural response brings a new level of understanding and informed decision-making to constructing, retrofitting or securing a building through a modification of the structural design, a relocation of key assets, an extension of the building’s perimeter, a changing the of the glazing, or the implementation of new security procedures.

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