EXCAVATIONS IN FROZEN GROUND, ALASKA, 1960-61,

Abstract

Spherical and cylindrical charges of 1, 4, 8, 32, 256 and 2560 lb were exploded in frozen silt near Fairbanks, Alaska, to investigate the applicability of lambda scaling for placing charges in frozen ground. One hundred and thirty holes, ranging from 3 to 6 in. in diameter, and 2 to 6 ft in depth, were drilled with a truck-mounted core drill. Compressed air, passed through an air-to-air heat exchanger to cool it below 25F, was used as a drilling fluid. Charge emplacement, stemming, and detonation are also described. Six basic series were fired which, except for the 2560-lb shots, consisted of two spheres and two cylinders buried at each of six scale depths. The crater volume was calculated by the centroid-volume method. A planimeter was used to measure the area of two mutually perpendicular cross sections through the center of the blast hole. Upon detonation of charges of a given weight at increasing depths, the resultant crater will increase to a maximum and rapidly drop off and disappear. At depths slightly beyond optimum, lambda scaling does not apply and the results are indeterminate. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 1965
Accession Number
AD0616314

Entities

People

  • J. E. Mccoy

Organizations

  • Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air
  • Compressed Air
  • Detonations
  • Diameters
  • Drilling
  • Drills
  • Emplacement
  • Excavation
  • Fluids
  • Heat Exchangers
  • Stemming
  • Tools

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Polar and Arctic Studies