COMPARISON OF FIELD AND LABORATORY FOREST FUEL IGNITION ENERGIES AND EXTRAPOLATION TO HIGH-YIELD WEAPONS

Abstract

Comparisons are made between ignition energies of forest fuels, including newspaper, determined during Operations BUSTER, SNAPPER AND UPSHOT- KNOTHOLE and laboratory exposures made utilizing the Forest Service thermal source. Agreement is excellent for fuels exposed normal to the radiant flux when fuel moisture content is considered. Ignition of fuels exposed at attitudes other than normal to the radiant flux is not discussed. Ignition energy-moisture content relationships which include the effect of weapon yield are presented. Although presented relationships lack complete scientific verification they appear valid for thin homogeneous fuel types, such as newspaper and grass, within + or - 5 to 15 percent for a range of yield of 1 KT to 10 MT. For more heterogeneous fuels, such as punk and litter, results are believed to be within + or - 25 percent for yields of 1 to 100 KT.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1956
Accession Number
AD0255430

Entities

People

  • F. M. Sauer

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Blast
  • Body Weight
  • Charring
  • Equations
  • Extrapolation
  • Fires
  • Forests
  • Fungi
  • Materials
  • Measurement
  • Moisture Content
  • Nomenclature
  • Particles
  • Square Waves
  • Thermal Diffusivity
  • Thermal Radiation
  • Thickness

Readers

  • Explosive Engineering.
  • Forest Ecology
  • Rocket Propulsion.