Blast Effect on Structures in Rock Mass

CEL 763

Blast: Death Toll

In last 6 days Mogadishu blast death toll hits 15 Somalia: Many dead in Mogadishu car bombing Death toll from factory blast mounts to 19 Kano bomb blasts death toll hits 162 Nigeria in shock as Kano death toll rises 200 Death toll in Nigeria attack rises to 143 11 die as blast razes Lahore drugs factory Death toll rises to 13 in China coal mine blast Death toll mounts to 279

Explosions
Man-Made (for construction purposes, accidental, terror attack, catastrophic failure of cylinder of compressed gas and pressure vessel, violent mixing of two liquids at different temperatures) Nuclear Explosion: Nuclear bomb (includes fission and fusion, releases large amount of energy) Natural (volcanic eruption) Astronomical (supernova) Chemical (rapid oxidation of fuel elements contained within the explosive compound, presence of air is not needed as oxygen is itself contained within the compound)

What is an explosion
An explosion is a rapid increase in volume and release of energy in an extreme manner, usually with the generation of high temperatures and the release of gases. Explosion creates shock wave. If the shock wave is a supersonic detonation, then the source of the blast is called a "high explosive". Subsonic shock waves are created by low explosives through the slower burning process known as deflagration.

Explosive detonation
low explosive, subsonic combustion, deflagration speeds measured in hundreds of m/s gunpowder (KNO3 or NaNO3 + C + S) high explosive, supersonic combustion, detonation speeds measured in thousands of m/s TNT (trinitrotoluene) 6,900 m/s NG (nitroglycerine) 7,700 m/s active ingredient in dynamite TATB (triaminotrinitrobenzene) 7,350 m/s used to trigger nuclear weapons, extremely insensitive to accidental detonation RDX (research department explosive, cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) 8,750 m/s active ingredient in plastic explosives (e.g.; C-4) HMX (high melt explosive, octogen, octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7tetrazocane) 9,100 m/s military explosive

 Combustion: is a term used to describe any oxidation reaction Deflagration: If explosive decompose at rate much below the speed of sound in the material Detonation: is a form of reaction of an explosive which produces a high intensity shock wave.

Blast waves and Blast Loading

Blast waves in air from condensed high explosives

Explosion
Generates Hot gases Air is Forced Out Results in compressed air layer i.e. blast wave Outward movement of blast wave cause pressure to fall as atmospheric pressure Further movement of blast wave cause pressure to fall below atmospheric pressure Further movement of blast wave cause pressure return to atmospheric pressure (Pressure from 100 -300 kBar) (Temp. from 3000 -4000 0C )

LOS ALAMOS SCIENCE Spring/Summer 1985

Explosions, projectiles whizzing by at supersonic speeds, high-speed collisions of solidswhat do these phenomena have in common?

Some facts about shock wave

Create very large changes in local pressure over very short times, and these violent pressure changes self-steepen into shock fronts, or shock waves. Unlike a sound wave, which is a small-amplitude compression wave that propagates at the local sound speed and leaves the state of the medium unchanged, a shock front is a nonlinear wave that abruptly changes the state of the supersonically approaching gas. The gas is generally at a higher temperature and pressure after it has passed through the shock (or. equivalently, after the shock has passed through the gas). Shock-heated gas moves subsonically with respect to the shock. Shock front is a narrow region where thermodynamic processes are irreversible. Unlike ordinary sound waves, the speed of a shock wave varies with its amplitude. The speed of a shock wave is always greater than the speed of sound in the fluid and decreases as the amplitude of the wave decreases. When the shock wave speed equals the normal sound speed, the shock wave dies and is reduced to an ordinary sound wave.

 When the speed of a source exceeds the speed of sound (v > c) the wave fronts lag behind the source in a cone-shaped region with the source at the vertex. The edge of the cone forms a supersonic wave front with an unusually large amplitude called a "shock wave". When a shock wave reaches an observer a "sonic boom" is heard.

The ratio of the speed of a moving object (v) to the speed of sound (c) in a fluid is known as the Mach number in honor of Ernst Mach(1838-1916), the Moravian physicist, psychologist, and philosopher who studied sound and ballistics. M = v/C the Mach number is a dimensionless measure of speed common in aerodynamics. Mach 0.5 is half the speed of sound, Mach 2 is twice the speed of sound, and so on. Speeds less than the speed of sound have a Mach number between zero and one and are described as subsonic. Those greater than the speed of sound have Mach numbers greater than one are a described as supersonic. Speeds approximately equal to the speed of sound have Mach numbers approximately equal to one and are described as transonic.

Common Explosives
Tetryl (2,4,6- Trinitrophenylmethylnitramin) PETN (Pentaerithrytoltetranitrate RDX (Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine) TNT (Trinitrotoluene) Pcric Acid

Shock Wave
Blast wave Seismic wave

The shock wave from a supersonic object is a cone composed of overlapping spherical wavefronts. As any one of these wavefronts forms, it propagates radially outward at speed c and acquires a radius ct. At the same time the source, traveling at speed v moves forward vt. These two displacements form the leg and hypotenuse, respectively, of a right triangle and can be used to determine the Mach angle at the vertex of the shock cone. sin ? = c/v When an object travels slower than sound, the ratio in this equation is greater than one, and the equation does not have a real solution. This makes absolute sense as there is no shock wave to speak of at subsonic speeds. Traveling at the speed of sound makes the ratio equal one and results in a Mach angle of ninety degrees. At transonic speeds the shock wave is a wall of high pressure moving with the object, perpendicular to its velocity. Above the speed of sound, the ratio is less than one and the Mach angle is less than ninety degrees. The faster the object moves, the narrower the cone of high pressure behind it becomes. Measuring the vertex angle is thus a simple way to determine the speed of a supersonic object.