EFFECTS OF AN ATOMIC EXPLOSION ON TWO TYPICAL TWO-STORY-AND-BASEMENT WOOD-FRAME HOUSES
Abstract
Two typical two-story frame houses, without utilities, were located at 7500 and 3500 ft from Ground Zero of a 16.4-kt bomb exploded at 300 ft above the ground. Exposure of the houses was for public demonstration purposes and to study the gamma-radiation scatter and the effects of thermal radiation and blast on each house. Both houses were furnished, and, in each, department-store mannequins were placed in the dining and living rooms. Film badges to measure gamma radiation were placed in layers throughout the house at 7500 ft and in the basement of the house at 3500 ft. Visual inspection and photography were utilized to study thermal-radiation and blast effects. Conclusions: A conventional wood-frame house will be severely damaged at an overpressure of 2 psi and will be destroyed at 5 psi. Damage to mannequins indicates that human beings without shelter in the same locations would have been injured in the far-range house and either killed or seriously injured in the near house by the effects of blast. Conventional methods of wood-frame house construction, even with the best of materials and workmanship, cannot provide sufficient strength to resist pressures such as existed at the near range.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1953
- Accession Number
- AD0611251
Entities
People
- Joseph B. Byrnes