Protection of buildings and infrastructure against explosion

The protection of buildings and infrastructure against highly dynamic load-ings caused by explosions requires a profound analysis of the dynamic struc-tural and material behavior. High speed recording devices are a valuable in-strumentation to support the respective studies. The present chapter gives dif-ferent examples that emphasize the importance of high speed videos for the study of loadings, damage behavior of structures and the determination of dy-namic material parameters.One of the main threats for humans and buildings are flying fragments for example vehiclecomponents in case of a Vehicle Born Improvised Explosive Device. It is shown how the trajectory of such fragments can be calculated by tracing their launch conditions after an explosion. At the resistance side material parameters can differ significantly under highly dynamic conditions. Split-Hopkinson bar tests are often used to deter-mine dynamic parameters of brittle materials. For the determination of the fracture energy the experimental analysis requires a high speed video to eval-uate the velocity of the specimen´s fragments. The respective coherences are explained. Furthermore, the design of members and the whole structure is based on the knowledge about their resistance behavior to extreme loadings like blast. Capturing the initiation and the propagation of a fracture process by high speed videos therefore is essential. It is also show how in combination with other tools like the Digital Image Correlation system it is possible to deter-mine the dynamic displacement of a whole specimen´s surface and that the results are useful for the validation of numerical simulations.