Profile

The security of living environments and working spaces as well as the protection of urban environments and critical infrastructure are central topics in the business unit Security and Resilience. Through targeted risk management, solutions against extreme conditions such as explosions, impacts, fire, strong wind events and earthquakes can be elaborated. The RHT model developed at EMI to describe the dynamic behavior of concrete is used worldwide in the hydrocode Autodyn. Especially developed engineering codes allow the calculation of limits for the dynamic loading capacity of materials such as steel, reinforced concrete, masonry and glass, and the possibilities for reinforcement of these. With the further development of ultra-high performance concrete and concept solutions for loading scenarios such as, for example, impact events in consequence of airplane crashes, the institute offers protection solutions to improve the residual load-carrying capacity of building structures. Polymer concrete (bio concrete), a material which was especially developed for the absorption of energy, shows considerable damage reduction under impact loading and explosion events. In order to examine the impact of the bedding (structure-soil interaction), triaxial tests of soil samples during short-time loading are used when considering tunnel safety. 

The Ernst-Mach-Institut conducts research regarding new sensor technology which helps task forces retrieving injured people quickly and safely during and after a crisis situation. Built-in sensor networks provide real-time information about the condition of building structures, enabling task forces to avoid dangerous areas. The development of high-speed X-ray-systems with 3D imaging allows a contact-free inspection of containers and, therefore, the detection of hazardous materials. 

One further core competence is the hazard and risk analysis for physical systems and software. These systems include safety analyses of airport barriers and their 3D visualization as well as the risk assessment for forest fire scenarios. Safety and risk analyses of critical events offer city planners and commanders of rescue forces the possibility to better prepare urban systems for crisis situations. In the field of electric mobility, the Ernst-Mach-Institut conducts various safety analyses, during which the effects of defect components and critical system components can be identified. In addition to the methods of fault tree analysis and failure mode and effects analysis (FEMA), engineering and circuitry simulations are utilized in the fault analysis. The aim is to extrapolate solutions via comparison of different system configurations and, in terms of security, supervise their implementation in order to support the developers of the systems.