Minimizing Consequences of Explosive Attacks on Remote Construction Sites

Abstract

Remote construction sites, such as oil production facilities and military forward operating bases, are frequently targeted by explosive terrorist attacks. These attacks produce devastating and far-reaching consequences that can be grouped into four main categories: personnel loss, psychological impact, economic loss, and operational impact. Existing security models rely on time-consuming external blast analysis software packages to quantify the consequences of explosive attacks and therefore cannot be used to optimize the layout planning of remote construction sites. This paper developed a novel facility layout optimization model capable of directly quantifying blast consequences and generating optimal site layout plans and protection strategies. The model is implemented using multiobjective genetic algorithms to identify solutions that provide optimal tradeoffs between the competing objectives of minimizing site explosive attack consequences and minimizing site construction costs. A case study of a hypothetical remote military base was analyzed to demonstrate the use of the model and display its unique capabilities.