Nuclear Cloud Rise and Growth
Abstract
Nuclear cloud rise and growth to stabilization is investigated. The Cloud Rise Module of the Defense Land Fallout Interpretive Code (DELFIC) is reviewed and improved. Both the modeling of bubble rise dynamics and particle rise dynamics are addressed. Improvements are made in predicting the stabilized particulate cloud for nuclear fallout purposes. The results are compared to US atmospheric nuclear weapons tests and to the output of MAZ/TASS hydrocode simulations. The improvements to the bubble rise dynamics include using a single term entrainment equation and constants for the entrainment and eddy viscous drag parameters. The validation showed a slight improvement was obtained with the improved model in predicting the cloud top values for 54 US near-surface bursts. The improvement to the particle rise model consisted of replacing the 1- D particle rise with a 2-D analytical flow field model. The model was based on Hill's spherical vortex. This improvement provided a radial distribution to the radioactive dust cloud. The larger fallout particles (>200 microns) achieved a higher altitude due to simulating the circulation within the cloud. Dose rate contours for some cases will be altered due to this change in vertical distribution from the 1-D model. Nuclear cloud rise, Nuclear weapon effects, Fireball rise, Delfic, Fallout, Atmospheric physics, Dissertation
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA280688
Entities
People
- Vincent J. Jodoin