Predicting the Mobility and Burial of Underwater Munitions and Explosives of Concern Using the VORTEX Model
Abstract
The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has responsibility for human safety and environmental stewardship for coastal ranges and for abandoned ordnance unintentionally left underwater as a result of historic military activities. In an effort to address these concerns, the Navy through its Navy Environmental Sustainability Development to Implementation (NESDI) Program funded a program to assess the environmental effects of underwater unexploded ordnance (UXO). The site conceptual model (SCM) developed under this program identified the inability to predict the mobility and burial of UXO underwater as a critical gap in capability. To meet this need, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Engineering Service Center (NAVFAC ESC) initiated a project to modify the existing vortex lattice, model which is used to predict mine mobility and burial. The new software is called the UXO Mobility Model (MM). By using the MM, it is possible to predict the fate of UXO over the broad range of coastal diversity where UXO is known to exist. As a supplement to the MM development and validation program, Sound and Sea Technology (SST) and NAVFAC ESC staff developed a human Interaction Model (IM). The IM was adapted from existing Navy models of the interaction of bottom fishing gear with seafloor cables. The IM estimates the probability of human interaction with seafloor UXO. Identifying the areas and entombment depths likely to contain UXO reduces costs associated with fieldwork focused on physically locating or clearing UXO items. The ultimate goal is to include the MM output data in a risk evaluation model specifically configured to support munitions response programs. Guidelines for using the MM as part of the overall process of analyzing risk of human interaction with UXO are provided in the Applications Guidance Document (AGD) (Wilson et al., 2008a). The Navy program developed the MM and completed short term, surf-zone validation for just one coastal type.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA607143
Entities
People
- Alexandra De Visser
- Barbara Sugiyama
Organizations
- Naval Facilities Engineering Service Center