Blast Effects of Atomic Weapons Upon Curtain Walls and Partitions of Masonry and Other Materials

摘要

Blast-resistance tests were made during Shot 9 on various types of wall panels and interior partitions. Buildings were rectangular test cells, open at the front and rear, having reinforced-concrete floor slabs, rood slabs, and dividing walls. Windowless test wall panels were built into the cell openings for the full height and width. The cells contained interior test partitions of many types and were enclosed with windowed masonry walls in front and solid masonry walls at the rear. Two ranges were selected for each of the building types, one at about 4.5-psi peak side-on overpressure and the other at about 7.5-psi peak side-on overpressure, in order to bracket the collapse overpressure levels for the standard construction of the test panels and partitions. The test was originally planned for comparative purposes. Subsequently, it became possible to provide some instrumentation, but not enough for a detailed analysis. Interior pressures were not recorded and the rear wall loadings had to be estimated for the analysis. The orientation of the cells to the shot was not as expected, possibly affecting the results to some degree. Laboratory tests of the component wall materials were not complete, and estimates had to be made of certain of these properties. Also, variation in the quality of construction of the test wall panels probably affected the results. Numerical integration was used for computation of wall response. Adjustments were made to the unknown variables to correlate the theoretical and observed results. Motion picture records were obtained at a rate of 64 frames per second, and selected frame sequences are included. The heavy dust conditions made many of the pictures unusable. (Author)