EXPERIMENTAL EVALUATION OF BLAST WAVE PARAMETERS IN UNDERWATER EXPLOSION OF HEXOGEN CHARGES

Behavior of blast wave in underwater explosion is of interest to metal forming community and ship designers. Underwater detonation is, also a potential hazard to the water intakes or a plant spent fuel pool. In this paper, some techniques for calculating free-field blast parameters such as pressure and impulse in underwater explosion and prediction of bubble pulsation parameters are presented and they will be compared by experimental results of underwater detonation of Hexogen explosive charge. The details of pressure pulse curves generated by detonation of Hexogen in several standoff distances are obtained, that by using scaling laws, they can be used in analysis of practical underwater detonations. Finally, the equivalent mass of Hexogen charge relative to TNT in underwater explosion is calculated.