FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF CRATER FORMATION IN CLAY SOILS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering Civil Eng. Department, Military Technical Collage–Cairo, EGYPT.

2 Lecturer in Geotechnical Engineering, School of Engineering, Design and Technology, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.

3 Reader in Structural Engineering, School of Engineering, Design and Technology, University of Bradford, Bradford, UK.

Abstract

Numerical studies of craters produced by explosions on or underneath the ground surface
are scarce An ability to predict the anticipated size of crater is crucial to identify the
corresponding damage that might be caused by a given explosive charge, or to assess the
magnitude of the charge if this was not known. In this paper, a non-linear dynamic
numerical analysis of the explosion phenomena in clay soils associated with different
amounts of TNT explosive charge is performed using the ABAQUS/Explicit finite
element code. To validate the numerical procedure and material constitutive models used
in the present work, a comparison with relatively small scale experiments is first
performed. The results obtained illustrate that an agreement between numerical and
experimental results is reasonable. Further numerical investigations have been carried out
for the crater dimensions created from bigger amounts of TNT charges. A study of the
influence of soil density on the crater dimensions is then undertaken. Based on the
obtained numerical results, a new prediction equation is proposed for the crater
dimensions as a function of the explosive charge considered. This equation represents the
approximation of the numerical results by least squares fitting. It was found that variation
of soil density could cause a change of up to 4% in the crater diameter. However, it will
be necessary to investigate variation of all the soil parameters before more generalized
conclusions can be made.

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