Forced Entry Testing of Five-Minute Walls

摘要

The U.S. Department of State (DOS), Office of Foreign Building Operations (FBO),has a requirement to design forced entry resistant walls for DOS facilities world-wide. Based primarily on the results of forced entry tests, FBO may certify a given wall design at one of three levels of forced entry protection. The three levels of forced entry protection defined by FBO (5, 15, and 60 minutes) imply a delay time provided against known groups of assault tools and numbers of assault personnel. In Fiscal Year 1995, FBO tasked the U.S. Army Engineer (USAE) Waterways Experiment Station (WES) to conduct a series of forced entry tests on various wall panels designed by FBO to meet the 5-minute forced entry protection level. Common construction materials, including concrete masonry units, lumber, plywood, and gypsum wallboard, were used to build the wall panels. Each timed assault test involved a two-man team's attempt to create a man-pass-able opening in a panel using various hand tools (sledgehammer, crowbar, wedge, etc.). Delay times provided by the various panels ranged from less than 3 minutes to nearly 15 minutes. (MM).