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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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27 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1980

Explosive materials equivalency, test methods and evaluation

Attention is given to concepts of explosive equivalency of energetic materials based on specific airblast parameters. A description is provided of a wide bandwidth high accuracy instrumentation system which has been used extensively in obtaining pressure time profiles of energetic materials. The object of the considered test method is to determine the maximum output from the detonation of explosive materials in terms of airblast overpressure and positive impulse. The measured pressure and impulse values are compared with known characteristics of hemispherical TNT data to determine the equivalency of the test material in relation to TNT. An investigation shows that meaningful comparisons between various explosives and a standard reference material such as TNT should be based upon the same parameters. The tests should be conducted under the same conditions.

Koger, D. M.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Large Meteoroid Impact on the Moon 17 March 2013

NASA's routine monitoring of lunar impact flashes has recorded nearly 300 impacts since 2006. On 17 March 2013 the brightest event to date was observed in two 0.35m telescopes at the Marshall Space Flight Center. With a peak red magnitude brighter than 4.3 and an impact flash visible for over 1 second, the impact kinetic energy was equivalent to nearly 5 tons of TNT. A possible association with a meteor shower observed in the Earth's atmosphere will be described. Corresponding crater dimensions and observability of the impact crater by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will also be discussed.

Suggs, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS2013

Large Meteoroid Impact on the Moon 17 March 2013

NASA's routine monitoring of lunar impact flashes has recorded nearly 300 impacts since 2006. On 17 March 2013 the brightest event to date was observed in two 0.35m telescopes at the Marshall Space Flight Center. With a peak red magnitude brighter than 4.3 and an impact flash visible for over 1 second, the impact kinetic energy was equivalent to nearly 5 tons of TNT. A possible association with a meteor shower observed in the Earth's atmosphere will be described. Corresponding crater dimensions and observability of the impact crater by Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter will also be discussed.

Suggs, Robert M.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Computer modeling of large asteroid impacts into continental and oceanic sites: Atmospheric, cratering, and ejecta dynamics

Numerous impact cratering events have occurred on the Earth during the last several billion years that have seriously affected our planet and its atmosphere. The largest cratering events, which were caused by asteroids and comets with kinetic energies equivalent to tens of millions of megatons of TNT, have distributed substantial quantities of terrestrial and extraterrestrial material over much or all of the Earth. In order to study a large-scale impact event in detail, computer simulations were completed that model the passage of a 10 km-diameter asteroid through the Earth's atmosphere and the subsequent cratering and ejecta dynamics associated with impact of the asteroid into two different targets, i.e., an oceanic site and a continental site. The calcuations were designed to broadly represent giant impact events that have occurred on the Earth since its formation and specifically represent an impact cratering event proposed to have occurred at the end of Cretaceous time. Calculation of the passage of the asteroid through a U.S. Standard Atmosphere showed development of a strong bow shock that expanded radially outward. Behind the shock front was a region of highly shock compressed and intensely heated air. Behind the asteroid, rapid expansion of this shocked air created a large region of very low density that also expanded away from the impact area. Calculations of the cratering events in both the continental and oceanic targets were carried to 120 s. Despite geologic differences, impacts in both targets developed comparable dynamic flow fields, and by approx. 29 s similar-sized transient craters approx. 39 km deep and approx. 62 km across had formed. For all practical purposes, the atmosphere was nearly completely removed from the impact area for tens of seconds, i.e., air pressures were less than fractions of a bar out to ranges of over 50 km. Consequently, much of the asteroid and target materials were ejected upward into a near vacuum. Effects of secondary volcanism and return of the ocean over hot oceanic crater floor could also be expected to add substantial solid and vaporized material to the atmosphere, but these conditions were not studied.

Roddy, D. J.↗
NASA NTRS2000

CFD Applications in Support of the Space Shuttle Risk Assessment

The paper describes a numerical study of a potential accident scenario of the space shuttle, operating at the same flight conditions as flight 51L, the Challenger accident. The interest in performing this simulation is derived by evidence that indicates that the event itself did not exert large enough blast loading on the shuttle to break it apart. Rather, the quasi-steady aerodynamic loading on the damaged, unbalance vehicle caused the break-up. Despite the enormous explosive potential of the shuttle total fuel load (both liquid and solid), the post accident explosives working group estimated the maximum energy involvement to be equivalent to about five hundreds of pounds of TNT. This understanding motivated the simulation described here. To err on the conservative side, we modeled the event as an explosion, and used the maximum energy estimate. We modeled the transient detonation of a 500 lbs spherical charge of TNT, placed at the main engine, and the resulting blast wave propagation about the complete stack. Tracking of peak pressures and impulses at hundreds of locations on the vehicle surface indicate that the blast load was insufficient to break the vehicle, hence demonstrating likely crew survivability through such an event.

Baum, Joseph D.↗
NASA NTRS1997

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 Fragment Size Estimates: How Big was the Parent Body?

The impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter in July, 1994 was the largest, most energetic impact event on a planet ever witnessed. Because it broke up during a close encounter with Jupiter in 1992, it was bright enough to be discovered more than a year prior to impact, allowing the scientific community an unprecedented opportunity to assess the effects such an event would have. Many excellent observations were made from Earth-based telescopes, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), and the Galileo spacecraft en route to Jupiter. In this paper, these observations are used in conjunction with computational simulations performed with the CTH shock-physics hydrocode to determine the sizes of the fifteen fragments that made discernible impact features on the planet. To do this, CTH was equipped with a radiative ablation model and a postprocessing radiative ray-trace capability that enabled light-flux predictions (often called the impact flash) for the viewing geometries of Galileo and ground-based observers. The five events recorded by Galileo were calibrated to give fragment size estimates. Compared against ground-based and HST observations, these estimates were extended using a least-squares analysis to assess the impacts of the remaining ten fragments. Some of the largest impacts (L, G, and K) were greater that 1 km in diameter, but the density of the fragments was low, about 0.25 g/cm(exp 3). The volume of the combined fifteen fragments would make a sphere 1.8 km in diameter. Assuming a prebreakup density of 0.5 g/cm(exp 3), the parent body of Shoemaker-Levy 9 had a probable diameter of 1.4 km. The total kinetic energy of all the impacts was equivalent to the explosive yield of 300 Gigatons of TNT.

Crawford, David A.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Atmospheric breakup of a small comet in the Earth's atmosphere

The aerodynamic stresses can lead to the deformation and even to destruction of the meteoroids during their flight through the atmosphere. The pressure at the blunt nose of the cosmic body moving at very high speed through the dense layers of the atmosphere may be much larger than the tensile or the compressive strength of the body. So the usage of the hydrodynamics theory is validated. The estimates show that the transverse velocity of the substance of the body U is of the order of (rho(sub a)/rho(sub o))(sup 1/2)V where V is the velocity of the body and rho(sub o) is its density, rho(sub a) is the density of the atmosphere. The separation of the fragments is larger than the diameter of the body D if D is less than D(sub c) = 2H(square root of rho(sub a)/rho(sub o)), where H is the characteristic scale of the atmosphere. For an icy body one obtains U = 1/30(V) and critical diameter D(sub C) = 500 m. The process of the disintegration of the body is still not fully understood and so one can use the numerical simulation to investigate it. Such simulations where conducted for the Venusian atmosphere and the gaseous equation of state of the body was used. For the Earth atmosphere for the velocity V = 50 km/s the pressure at the blunt nose of the body is 25 kbar, and is of the order of bulk modulus of compressibility of the water or ice. The realistic EOS of water in tabular form was used. It was assumed that the initial shape of the body was spherical and the initial diameter D(sub o) of the body is 200 m and so it is smaller than the critical diameter D(sub C). The initial kinetic energy of the icy body is equivalent to the energy of the explosion 1200 Mt of TNT. The results of the simulation of the deformation of the body during its vertical flight through the atmosphere and during its impact into the ocean are presented.

Teterev, A. V.↗
NASA NTRS1997

The Cretaceous-Tertiary Impact Crater and the Cosmic Projectile that Produced it

Evidence gathered to date from topographic data, geophysical data, well logs, and drill-core samples indicates that the buried Chicxulub basin, the source crater for the approximately 65 Ma Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary deposits, is approximately 300 km in diameter. A prominent topographic ridge and a ring of gravity anomalies mark the position of the basin rim at approximately 150 km from the center. Wells in this region recovered thick sequences of impact-generated breccias at 200-300 m below present sea level. Inside the rim, which has been severely modified by erosion following impact, the subsurface basin continues to deepen until near the center it is approximately 1 km deep. The best planetary analog for this crater appears to be the 270 km-diameter Mead basin on Venus. Seismic reflection data indicate that the central zone of downward displacement and excavation (the transient crater is approximately 130 km in diameter, consistent with previous studies of gravity anomaly data). Our analysis of projectile characteristics utilizes this information, coupled with conventional scaling relationships, and geochemical constraints on the mass of extraterrestrial material deposited within the K/T boundary layer. Results indicate that the Chicxulub crater would most likely be formed by a long-period comet composed primarily of nonsilicate materials (ice, hydrocarbons, etc.) and subordinate amounts (less than or equal to 50 percent) primitive chondritic material. This collision would have released the energy equivalent to between 4 x 10(exp 8) and 4 x 10(exp 9) megatons of TNT. Studies of terrestrial impact rates suggest that such an event would have a mean production rate of approximately 1.25 x 10(exp -9) y(exp -1). This rate is considerably lower than that of the major mass extinctions over the last 250 million years (approximately 5 x 10(exp -7) y(exp -1). Consequently, while there is substantial circumstantial evidence establishing the cause-effect link between the Chicxulub basin forming event and the K/T biological extinctions, the results of our analysis do not support models of impact as a common or singular causative agent of mass extinctions on Earth.

Sharpton, Virgil L.↗
NASA NTRS1980

The equivalent depth of burst for impact cratering

The concept of modeling an impact cratering event with an explosive event with the explosive buried at some equivalent depth of burst (d.o.b.) is discussed. Various and different ways to define this equivalent d.o.b. are identified. Recent experimental results for a dense quartz sand are used to determine the equivalent d.o.b. for various conditions of charge type, event size, and impact conditions. The results show a decrease in equivalent d.o.b. with increasing energy for fixed impact velocity and a decrease in equivalent d.o.b. with increasing velocity for fixed energy. The values for an iron projectile are on the order of 2-3 projectile radii for energy equal to one ton of TNT, decreasing to about 1.5 radii at a megaton of TNT. The dependence on projectile and target mass density matches that included in common jet-penetration formulas for projectile densities greater than target densities and for the higher energies.

Holsapple, K. A.↗