Date of Award

3-1993

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering

Department

Department of Engineering Physics

First Advisor

Kirk A. Mathews, PhD

Abstract

In this study, CTH, a production hydrodynamics code developed and provided by Sandia National Laboratories. modeled the interaction of a shock wave with tall V-shaped buildings with various wall lengths and vertex angles. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the length and vertex angle affect the peak overpressure at the vertex. CTH performed two- dimensional Eulerian-Lagrangian computations to obtain solutions of this problem. The models were cast in two-dimensional rectangular geometry on a horizontal plane because of the computational costs of three-dimensional calculations. This geometry simulates tall buildings exposed to a tall Mach stem blast. The free-field shock increased sharply to a peak overpressure of 6.2 psi and returned to ambient conditions after about one second. This incident shock amplified significantly in the building vertices. Peak overpressures measured as high as 8.7 times the incident free-field overpressure of 6.2 psi, or 3.9 times the peak reflected overpressure of 14 psi due to reflection at normal incidence. The amplification was greatest with narrow vertex angles, but was significant (2.7 times that at normal incidence) even with right-angle vertices. The amplification of the peak overpressure due to reflection within concave corners is important in determining the vulnerability of structures to blast damage.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-GNE-ENP-93M-4

DTIC Accession Number

ADA262581

Comments

The author's Vita page is omitted.

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