OPTICAL OBSERVATION OF DETONATION OF SHALLOW BURIED CHARGE IN SANDY SOIL

Abstract

Small-scale blast tests were carried out to observe and measure the influence of sandy soil on explosive blast intensity. The tests were carried out to simulate the blast impact imparted by an anti-vehicular landmine on a vehicle with reference to light armoured vehicles. A steel apparatus with a scale factor of 1:10 and weighing about 22 kg was used to represent the size and weight of a vehicle, and a mass of 20 g
high explosive charge was used as a surrogate landmine. The observations and measurements were made by optical method using a high-speed video camera. The time of occurrence of the three phases of detonation in soil for upward translation time of the test apparatus was recorded. The recorded flight time and peak height reached by the apparatus was used to determine the energy transfer and initial velocity. The data for detonation in sandy soil was compared with those for air blast detonation. At an identical stand-off distance, the blast intensity of detonation in sandy soil is higher than that of air blast detonation. Based on the optical observation and quantified data, the effect of soil in amplifying blast intensity is apparent and may be attributed to the effect of soil funnelling on blast wave and from the impact of soil ejecta.
Keywords: Buried explosive; small-scale experiment; tropical soil; blast intensity; soil ejecta.

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