Airblast environments from buried HE charges
- Fraunhofer-Institut fuer Kurzzeitdynamik - Ernst-Mach-Institut (EMI), Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., El Segundo, CA (United States)
Laboratory experiments were conducted to measure the airblast environment generated by the detonation of buried HE charges. Spherical 0.5-g charges of Nitropenta were used as the HE source. Three ground materials were used: (1) a porous, crushable grout (YTONG, {rho} = 0.4 g/cm{sup 3}); (2) a water-saturated grout ({rho} {approx_equal} 0.7 g/Cm{sup 3}) to investigate the effects of density increase; and (3) a clay-loam material ({rho} {approx_equal} 1.8 g/cm{sup 3}) to simulate some of the previous field tests conducted in clay. Diagnostics consisted of 13 flush-mounted pressure gauges, and single-frame schlieren photography. A special shock isolation system was used to eliminate the acceleration effects on the gauges that were induced by the cratering process. Analysis of the pressure measurements resulted in an experimental definition of the airblast environment as a function of ground range (GR) and depth-of-burst (DOB). Synthesis of these results allowed one to construct airblast DOB curves, similar to the airblast height-of-burst curves that we published previously for Nitropenta charges. Variables analyzed were: peak pressure, arrival time, positive phase duration and impulse. As in field tests, we found that the airblast waveforms changed character with increasing DOB. The crater characteristics (e.a., depth, radius and volume) were also measured. The cube-root-scaled crater volume was in qualitative agreement with data from field tests (e.g., charge weights up to 10{sup 4} lbs.). Since the present scaled results compare well with data from large-scale HE tests, we conclude that the present experimental technique provides a useful tool for parametric investigations of explosion effects in the laboratory.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Defense Nuclear Agency, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 10118533
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-CR-114890; DNA-001-91-C-0039; ON: DE94005694; IN: DNA-IACRO 92-824
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Jan 1993
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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