MARINE BARRIER PENDULUM (MBP) SECURITY SYSTEM

FOR BOTH

PREVENTION OF TERRORISM AND PIRACY AT PORTS

BY:	Marc S. Caspe, P.E., S.E., KKCS
	Ralph Petereit, Parsons Brinckerhoff
	Jun Ji, P.E., Ph.D., KKCS
	Doug Piper, LightLoc
	Angus Langsdon, CodaOctopus

A pacific coast client of KKCS and its Team of maritime experts, is about to construct a Marine Barrier Pendulum System (MBPS) in seawater made of reinforced HDPE plank. This MBPS will present a physical barrier against incursions of both terrorists with explosives and pirates with AK-47 weaponry.

The MBPS provides an impenetrable wall between the outer piling of a wharf and cantilevered fendering systems. Suspended from the wharf deck with through bolts, the low-maintenance Pillow Block Bearings are made of ASTM A-316 stainless steel and a special USACE-tested polymer rotation surface.

In addition to the MBPS’ Physical Barrier, an embedded fiber optic system by LightLoc provides an early warning for armed intervention if cut. Additionally, Coda-Octopus’ sonar scanning system provides 5 mile small boat detection and 1 mile swimmer detection both within and beyond the breakwater.

The MBPS attains a unique security level, including analytic design and prototype validations. The high tech analyses utilize Abaqus/Aqua for performance simulations, taking account of attacking forces as well as environmental forces due to extreme waves and earthquakes.