THEORETICAL STUDIES OF UNDERGROUND SHOCK WAVES
- Resource Type
- Technical Report
- Authors
- Source
- Other Information: Decl. Aug. 24, 1959; Project 1.9 of OPERATION JANGLE. Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-60
- Subject
- PHYSICS DISTRIBUTION
ELASTICITY
MATHEMATICS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MOTION
PRESSURE
SHOCK WAVES
SOILS
SOLIDS
SPHERES
STATISTICS
STRESSES
SURFACES
TENSORS
UNDERGROUND EXPLOSIONS
VECTORS
VELOCITY
- Language
- English
S>A theory of wave motion in the ground was developed in an attempt to account for phenomena already observed in large-scale explosions and as a means of predicting phenomena with reasonable accuracy in future explosions. A discussion is presented in support of the belief that the ground behaves like an elastic solid at distances from the explosion corresponding to values of the scaled distances which are greater than 4. The most general possible relation between the stress tensor T and the strain tensor E is derived for an isotropic medium. A theory is developed of a hypothetical material whose mechanical behavior may approximate that of soil. Methods are presented for the exact formal solution for the displacements in an elastic half space due to any arbitrary radial pressure-time distribution on the surface of a small finite spherical cavity within the half space. A derivation is presented using methods of statistical mechanics of the equations of massmotion of a medium which consists of a very large number of particles and two of which repel one another according to a given law of force. The assumptions underlying the theory of dimensional analysis are reviewed and the fundamental Vaschy-Buckingham Pi Theorem is stated. Application is made to the determination of the most general functional forms of the peak values of soil pressure, particle acceleration, velocity, and displacement. (C.A.)