Long distance propagation of shock waves in the open atmosphere

Christophe Proust (1) , Laure Heudier (1) , K. Vilalta

1 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

Despite significant progresses in the understanding of the formation and propagation of pressure waves in the open atmosphere in the past decades, experience form past accidents (AZF, Toulouse, 2001, Billy-Berclau, 2003 and even Buncefied 2005) reveals that overpressure levels may be greatly ill estimated. This is obviously a concern when the protection of citizens is concerned. There are some indications that both the topography and weather conditions may play a significant role but this remains rather qualitative and there is a need to clarify such points. In this paper, the results of a preliminary experimental campaign are presented in which up to 500 kg eq TNT was detonated in the open atmosphere and the pressure field measured up to 10 kms.

Domains: Environmental Sciences; Environmental Engineering

Christophe Proust, Laure Heudier, K. Vilalta. Long distance propagation of shock waves in the open atmosphere. 25. International Colloquium on the Dynamics of Explosions and Reactive Systems (ICDERS), Aug 2015, Leeds, United Kingdom. ⟨ineris-01855088⟩