Technology and Operations
This forum is for discussing technological & operational matters pertaining to U-boats.
Re: Torpedo explosive force
Posted by:
Nathan M. Greenfield
()
Date: November 19, 2002 07:53PM
For what it's worth, in UNDERWATER EXPLOSIONS written in 1948 by Robert Cole (cited, I think, by Gannon), there is a fascinating discussion of, yep, underwater explosions. My math is a bit too weak to get into all the technical details, but from what I understand, working chiefly with d/c, Cole determined that the temperature at the heart of an explosion is "of the order of 3,000 Centigrade and the pressure is 50,000 atmospheres.
This superheated gas bubble produces an area of "rapidly advancing discontinuity" known as a "detonation wave."
"The first cause of disturbance to the water is an explosion is tha arrival of the presure wave in the reacting explosive at the water boundary. Immediately upon its arrival, this pressure, which is of the order of 2 10(to the 6th power)lb./in (to the 2nd power) [there is a dot between the 2 and the 10] for TNT, begins to be relieved by an intense pressure wave and outward motion of the water.
The velocity of the propagation near the charge is several times the limiting value of about 5,000 ft./sec
In short, I think we can safely say that an exploding torpedo (Cole's experiments seem to have been carried out with 300 lbs of TNT) was a hell of a lot -- pretty close for most of our purposes to the 3,000 C, 50,000 atmosphere figure.
Does this just muddy the waters further?
NMG
This superheated gas bubble produces an area of "rapidly advancing discontinuity" known as a "detonation wave."
"The first cause of disturbance to the water is an explosion is tha arrival of the presure wave in the reacting explosive at the water boundary. Immediately upon its arrival, this pressure, which is of the order of 2 10(to the 6th power)lb./in (to the 2nd power) [there is a dot between the 2 and the 10] for TNT, begins to be relieved by an intense pressure wave and outward motion of the water.
The velocity of the propagation near the charge is several times the limiting value of about 5,000 ft./sec
In short, I think we can safely say that an exploding torpedo (Cole's experiments seem to have been carried out with 300 lbs of TNT) was a hell of a lot -- pretty close for most of our purposes to the 3,000 C, 50,000 atmosphere figure.
Does this just muddy the waters further?
NMG
