Craters Produced by Explosions Above the Soil Surface

Abstract

In case of terrorist attacks or other intentional actions using explosives, the information that can be obtained from the crater generated by the blast waves is extremely important, for example, the focus of the explosion and the mass of the explosive used in the attack can be deduced examining the location and dimensions of the crater. However, studies about craters produced by explosions on or above ground level, which would be the case when the explosive charge is situated in a vehicle, are rarely found in the open technical literature. A numerical study related to crater produced by explosive loads located on the soil surface was presented in previous papers. In this paper, a study about the influence of the gravity center of the explosive load on the crater dimensions is presented. The numerical model, as well as the analysis procedure, was validated against experimental observations of the crater diameters. Results of numerical tests performed with different amounts of explosive above the soil surface are presented. Moreover, the effect of elevation of the center of energy release of explosive loads located on the soil surface is analyzed and discussed.