Explosion airblast predictions on a personal computer and application to the Henderson, Nevada, incident. [Air blast or buried]

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6955187

Reed, J W

An airblast prediction program for explosions, called BLASTO, has been written for use with IBM-PC (or compatible) computers, to produce overpressure-distance curves for a variety of interactive input conditions. Several common units are allowed for each input, but calculation and output are in SAI metric units. Explosion yield (chemical or nuclear) and ambient atmospheric pressure are used to generate a referenced 'Standard' overpressure-distance curve. Explosives may be point charges at any height, above ground or depth below the earth surface. Buried charges may also be distributed in a sheet, or 'HEST' configuration. If upper air weather data or forecasts are available, they can be used to generate directed (wind effects) sound velocity versus height structures which are interpreted to give attenuated or enhanced overpressure-distance curves. These are calculated for directions around the compass or toward specified targets or communities. Evaluation of the recent accidental explosion at an ammonium perchlorate (A-P) plant in Henderson, Nevada, made use of BLASTO. Damage inspection gave some estimates for incident overpressure at various ranges. These showed considerable scatter, but they generally surrounded an overpressure versus distance curve calculated for 1-kt NE free-air burst. Weather data and directed sound velocity calculations showed that some of the closest residential damages were in directions of minimal weather-dependent blast distortion, allowing the conclusion that the largest explosion could be simulated by a 250-ton HE surface burst. Video-camera recordings, newspaper eye-witness accounts, post-accident aerial photographs, seismic recordings, and a report of the A-P storage pattern have been reviewed to show that this largest blast probably occurred in a 1500-ton A-P collection. This leads to 1:6 TNT airblast equivalence for A-P. 15 refs., 9 figs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6955187
• Report Number(s): SAND-88-0681C; CONF-880891-2; ON: DE88014991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

45 MILITARY TECHNOLOGY, WEAPONRY, AND NATIONAL DEFENSE
450100* -- Military Technology
Weaponry
& National Defense-- Chemical Explosions & Explosives
ACCIDENTS
AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS
AMMONIUM PERCHLORATES
B CODES
BLAST EFFECTS
BUILDINGS
CALCULATION METHODS
CHEMICAL PLANTS
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
COMPUTER CODES
COMPUTERS
DAMAGE
DATA
DIGITAL COMPUTERS
EXPLOSIONS
FEDERAL REGION IX
FORECASTING
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
NEVADA
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERCHLORATES
PERSONAL COMPUTERS
USA