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NASA NTRS1978

Interaction of a strong blast wave with a free surface

When a point source explosion is initiated at the ocean surface, the shock propagated into the water is reflected at the surface as a centered expansion wave. The solution in the neighborhood of the interaction point is obtained by writing the equations of motion in the appropriate similarity variables and then changing the independent variables to polar coordinates based at the interaction point. From the zero-order solution of the resulting equations the slopes of boundaries at the interaction point are obtained. A first-order perturbation of this solution provides more accurate representation of the flow variables and the curvature of the shock surface near the interaction point.

Falade, A.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Surface waves generated by shallow underwater explosions

Surface water waves generated by surface and near surface point explosions are calculated. Taking the impulse distribution imparted at the water surface by the explosion as the overriding mechanism for transferring energy of the explosive to surface wave motion, the linearized theory of Kranzer and Keller is used to obtain the wave displacement in the far field. The impulse distribution is obtained by integrating the pressure wave over an appropriate time interval on a horizontal surface just beneath the undisturbed water surface. For surface explosions, a modified form of the similarity method first used by Collins and Holt is used to obtain the flow field. In the case of submerged explosions, the flow field is estimated by making necessary modifications to Sedov's similarity solution to account for the venting that accompanies the interaction of the leading (blast) wave with the ocean surface. Surface waves generated by a charge at six depths of placement (0.15 m, 0.30 m, 0.61 m, 0.91 m, 1.37 m, 3.05 m) are considered in addition to surface explosions. The results seem to support the existence of an upper critical depth phenomenon (of the type already established for chemical explosions) for point (nuclear) explosions.

Falade, A.↗