Vulnerability of Critical Infrastructure Systems: A Physical Analogy for Modeling Complex Hysteresis Behavior

摘要

Systems consisting of parts - which may be seen as atomic (indivisible) components that usually come in large numbers, are couple with each other with a strength expressed as coupling "energy", and respond to external stress - were often shown to share behavioral features largely indifferent to the nature of the system. Taking advantage, the paper employs the Physics concept of hysteresis as a derivative of a co-operative behavior, to show that systems' observed tendency to resist stress and maintain their state and performance level against the driving stress applied is ubiquous and, especially off-Physics, highly meaningful. In the context of the developed model, the concepts of resiliency and vulnerability of highly interdependent critical infrastructure systems are introduced and experimented within a "serious gaming" simulation framework.