Vulnerability analysis of interdependent infrastructure systems under edge attack strategies

Infrastructure systems construct the cornerstone of modern society, they become more and more interconnected and interdependent on multiple levels. Therefore protecting them from various disturbances become an active topic of research in safety science. This paper takes power and gas pipeline systems as example and focuses on the following problems: edge attack strategies and critical components. Applying network model the authors analyse interdependent responses under three types of edge disturbance strategies, and give a method for ranking critical components. Meanwhile, different interface design strategies are illustrated to minimize cascading failures. It has shown that the effects of different attacks on systems connectivity against cascading failures have close relations with the tolerate parameter. In addition, the results show interdependent systems with degree based interfaces provide good stability and good performance. Simultaneously it is represented that critical components for independent cases are those with high loads and connections. However, due to interdependency, critical components for interdependent cases have some differences compared to independent ones and can result in more performance losses, they should be protected with prior consideration. Provided by the results of the research, it is helpful to better shape an expansion of the systems, infrastructure owners could model different event scenarios and assess their impact on the systems. (c) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.