BLAST PHENOMENA FROM EXPLOSIONS AT THE WATER SURFACE

The principal objective of this study was to evaluate the blast and shock phenomena (in air and underwater) resulting from a pure surface explosion (i.e. the situation where the charge is half in and half out of the water). The particular case of an explosion at an air-liquid (water, in most cases) interface is considered in this paper because this case is easier to handle both analytically and experimentally than an explosion at an air-solid interface, and thus permits one to compare more readily analytical and experimental results. Moreover, it should be noted that solids under sufficiently strong impulsive loads are known to behave much as liquids. The general results of the air-liquid interface case can be utilized for any air-solid case by substituting the appropriate material constants to represent the liquid properties of the solid under consideration.