About Karagozian & Case
Karagozian & Case was founded in 1945. K&C is a well-respected and recognized member of the consulting engineer community and is recognized nationally and internationally for its capabilities in protection engineering.
K&C provides a unique and highly technical set of skills as consultants by providing engineering services for the design and analysis of structural and mechanical systems subjected to blast, impact, and shock effects.
- Our firm, although small, has extraordinary depth in blast effects design, research and development, testing, and field engineering.
- Many of the principals at K&C have personally advanced the state-of-the-art in design and analysis technologies related to blast effects and high velocity impacts, as indicated by the patents issued to them, the number of design manuals and guides authored, and the software design tools produced.
- We are a firm that is both highly technological and also provides practical and cost-effective solutions to support our clients' design needs during project development and construction.
- The skills of the Karagozian & Case engineering staff are focused in five complementary areas:
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K&C specializes in engineering design that reduces the threat and effects from blast loads, high-velocity impacts (e.g., from vehicles and projectiles), and shock loads. K&C also offers validation testing of existing blast and impact resistant designs, and advanced computational structural and fluid dynamics analyses that are capable of simulating the actual responses that occur in blast and impact events. Such detailed analyses are often critical to the appropriate solution of design parameters in what are often highly complex situations. Design threats include:
- Terrorist bombings, particularly for large bombs and small, very close charges.
- Accidental explosions and storage of explosive materials.
- High velocity impacts (e.g., perimeter security against vehicle entry, mortar and RPPs, and small arms fire.)
In addition, for over five decades, K&C has provided designs and performed blast effects tests of hardened military structures to resist damage from both conventional and nuclear weapons.
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We provide clients with risk assessment and mitigation studies associated with blast effects and high-velocity impacts. These studies define the site specific threats and vulnerabilities, generate mitigation measures and their costs, and work closely with clients to enable them to understand their risks and options pursuant to the countering of terrorist, explosive, and other forms of extreme threats. Assessments are performed with K&C's own assessment tools. The highly visual style of our results presentation greatly aids the client in understanding the issues involved. Our extensive experience with blast and impact testing of components and systems and the design of blast-resistant systems has enabled K&C to deliver proven mitigation concepts that are both practical and innovative, at realistic costs.
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K&C offers a comprehensive array of perimeter security services, catering to Government and private interests both in the U.S. and abroad. We have designed, tested, and implemented complete defense systems that include features such as vehicle barriers, fences, walls, gates, glazing, and entry control facilities, based on blast and FE/BR (forced entry, ballistic resistance) requirements. K&C assists clients with all key aspects of design and deployment, a process that begins with site-specific threat definition analysis and a vulnerability assessment, following with functional requirements definition, and finally, system selection and design. Our advanced understanding of dynamic response analysis and impact effects modeling allows us to design systems compatible with such factors as historical preservation and architectural constraints, but without sacrificing protective capabilities. As an example, K&C was the firstprivate consultant to have conceptualized, designed, and physically tested barrier systems capable of stopping vehicles weighing 65,000 lbs and traveling at speeds of up to 50 mph. Design-build options are also provided, as an alternative.
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K&C also provides conventional design packages for commercial and industrial projects. Much of this work is related to retrofitting existing facilities for expanding their capacity or upgrading their strength, particularly related to seismic threats. This experience in conventional design is highly useful when interfacing our blast-resistant design work with an existing structure or the work of conventional structural engineers, which allows our resistant designs to integrate smoothly with conventional designs.
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K&C is one of the leading institutions in the world in providing research and development services to the Government and product manufacturers related to the development of blast and impact resistant devices and technologies. K&C has performed hundreds of tests over a forty year span. These tests include a variety of structural and mechanical devices, for example, steel and reinforced concrete (RC) columns, beams, and framing systems; RC and masonry walls, glazing systems and curtain walls, and blast and impact barriers. In addition, K&C has designed numerous test fixtures and test specimens for blast and shock effects tests to verify their performance.
