Laboratory Investigation of Containment in Underground Nuclear Tests

As part of the DNA stemming and containment program for underground nuclear testing, laboratory investigations were conducted to further develop a containment experiment for studying residual stress fields around exploded cavities. A comparison of hydrofracture pressures for exploded and unexploded cavities revealed the existence of this stress field and its benefit to containment. Fundamental containment mechanisms were investigated by studying the effects of changes in basic experimental parameters. The data generated provide results suitable for development of new containment theories as well as for correlation with predictions of existing computer codes.