Simulation of Underwater Nuclear Bursts at Shallow Depths with Wires
Abstract
Fifty four nearly identical bridge wires were exploded in a vacuum tank near the surface of deep water and in water as shallow as 0.1 in. The deeply submerged wires produced steam bubbles about 4.1 in. in diameter so that the equivalent TNT charge weight was approximately .000086 lb. The atmospheric pressure was reduced to half the normal value for some of the tests to prevent the column walls from tapering inward. The cavities and water columns were photographically recorded, and the surface waves were measured with a new type of magnetic wave gage. A distinct upper critical depth effect was observed for the exploding wires, and it was caused by the fact that two types of cavities were produced, those that flared open and those that sprayed upward. The wave trains calculated from the cavities produced by the wire explosions near the surface of deep water correlate well with the wave gage records, but only 1 percent of the cavity energy propagated away as surface waves so that all the calculated wave heights were reduced by a factor of about 10 to account for frictional losses associated with the collapsing cavities. The factor is much larger than for large bursts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1971
- Accession Number
- AD0732027
Entities
People
- A. R. Kriebel