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Title: |
Resilience and vulnerability in critical infrastructure systems – a physical analogy |
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Author: |
Adrian V. Gheorghe, Dan V. Vamanu 
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Address: |
Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23259, USA. ' 'Horia Hulubei' National Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering, Bucharest, Romania |
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Journal: |
International Journal of Critical Infrastructures 2009 - Vol. 5, No.4 pp. 389 - 397 |
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Abstract: |
Systems consisting of parts – which may be seen as atomic (indivisible) components that usually come in large numbers are coupled with each other with a strength expressed as coupling 'energy' and respond to external stress – were often shown to share behavioural features largely indifferent to the nature of the system. Taking advantage of this, the paper employs the physics concept of hysteresis as a derivative of a cooperative behaviour to show that the systems' observed tendency to resist stress and maintain their state and performance level against the driving stress applied is ubiquous and, especially, off-physics is highly meaningful. In this context, the concepts of resiliency and vulnerability of highly interdependent critical infrastructure systems are introduced and experimented within a 'serious gaming' simulation framework. |
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Keywords: |
critical infrastructures; resilience; vulnerability; hysteresis; gaming; external stress; simulation. |
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DOI: |
10.1504/IJCIS.2009.029116 |
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