Radio frequency transparent barriers for airport structures: The SAS project

Structural design of special infrastructures has to account for high dynamic load conditions, which could be induced by man-made actions as explosions or impacts. This issue is surely important in airport structures design, like barriers protecting radio communication facilities having the additional requirement to be transparent to radio frequency in order to avoid disturbing or preventing communications. In December 2006 AMRA, an Italian research centre of excellence, and ENAV, the Italian agency for air traffic control, in cooperation with the University of Naples "Federico II" and other technical partners, started the SAS (Security of Airport Structures) project, centered on this critical topic. The project has the financial support of the European Commission - Directorate General Justice, Freedom and Security, through EPCIP 2006 (European Programme for Critical Infrastructures Protection). The objective of the project is to study structural systems like barriers or fences to protect critical airport infrastructures, such as VOR stations, against man-made disruptions. To obtain satisfactory structural performance without interfering with RF airport communications, GFRP pipe elements are used. Structural models have been built to simulate the conditions induced by malicious external actions and the results will be validated by blast tests performed on real elements. The present paper describes the overall state of the project at three months from its end. As a consequence, here limited results are released but the general concept is widely described. In particular the outcomes of the preliminary static characterization of GFRP elements are outlined and the results of four point bending tests are discussed.