Results of Fort Carson, Colorado Terrain Dust Obscuration Tests Using Explosives

摘要

The US Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station (WES) conducted explosive dust obscuration measurements at Fort Carson, Col., in April and August 1983 to demonstrate the validity of WES volumetric models for predicting dust loading. Based on measurements of dust cloud mass concentrations, soil craters, and soil/terrain properties for a series of uncased C-4 high-explosive detonations at the terrain surface, it was found that crater volumes generally correlate well with charge weight, but that the same factor could not be shown to contribute to airborne dust loading (using available measurement techniques). The latter depends on soil texture and moisture, but significant dependence on other basic soil properties is not yet indicated. The Dust Obscuration Test series produced an extensive sampling of explosive dust clouds together with the comprehensive crater and soil measurements. It also provided measurements of shock-induced dust, which can be a significant obscurant generated as, for example, in the case of muzzle blasts. Five diagrams are included showing the probable path of each cloud in the horizontal, with an hypothesized sigma of the cloud width as a function of path traveled (which is itself a function of lapsed time).