BLAST WAVE HARDENING OF UNDERWATER STRUCTURES WITH BUBBLY WATER LAYERS

Abstract

The attenuation of a blast wave passing through a layer of bubbly water is investigated under assumptions that permit an acoustic analysis. The presence of a small amount of air in water reduces the speed of sound drastically, often two orders of magnitude. For example, it is found that in a mixture of air and water at STP, the speed of sound is between 100 and 170 ft/ sec for an air to mixture volume ratio of 5 to 15 percent. It is shown that this phenomenon can be used to harden underwater structures to fairly sizable compression waves (or nearly equal to 5000 psi) and to produce a possible order of magnitude reduction in the overpressure for a single bubble layer. Further attenuation may then be obtained by a sequence of bubble layers.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0803385

Entities

People

  • Charles R. Ortloff
  • John P. Jones

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Impedance
  • Air Force
  • Blast
  • Blast Waves
  • Boundaries
  • Compression
  • Compression Waves
  • Explosions
  • Explosives
  • Impedance
  • Overpressure
  • Sea Level
  • Shock Waves
  • Specific Heat
  • Underwater Structures
  • Wave Propagation
  • Waves

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Materials Science and Engineering.