Flashover Modeling For Direct Course
Report Number: CONF-8305107, p. 189-194
Author(s): Martin, Stan, Hughes, Pete
Corporate Author(s): Los Alamos Technical Associates
Laboratory: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Date of Publication: 1983-07
Pages: 6
DoD Task:
Identifier: This paper is part of a conference proceedings. See ADA132780
Abstract:
The current fire defense doctrine for nuclear attack preparedness is possibly erroneous. The guidance to local planners has been strongly influenced by the concept that fires started by the thermal pulse of the nuclear fireball are initially feeble and quite susceptible to airblast extinction. This concept ignores a potentially crucial observation made during the days of atmospheric nuclear testing, that has since been termed an anomaly. Nevertheless, this observation may provide the explanation for some of the puzzles -- the contradictions of experimental tests vis-a-vis historical fact -- that have for years persisted about the incendiary consequences of nuclear explosions in or near urban complexes. Operation DIRECT COURSE offers an opportunity to resolve a part of the quandary. The question to be answered is whether fires of the rapid fire-growth-·to-flashover type·, as associated with nuclear thermal-pulse scenarios, are as susceptible to extinction as the current doctrine supposes. This paper describes an experiment designed to gain an answer to that question.
Author(s): Martin, Stan, Hughes, Pete
Corporate Author(s): Los Alamos Technical Associates
Laboratory: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Date of Publication: 1983-07
Pages: 6
DoD Task:
Identifier: This paper is part of a conference proceedings. See ADA132780
Abstract:
The current fire defense doctrine for nuclear attack preparedness is possibly erroneous. The guidance to local planners has been strongly influenced by the concept that fires started by the thermal pulse of the nuclear fireball are initially feeble and quite susceptible to airblast extinction. This concept ignores a potentially crucial observation made during the days of atmospheric nuclear testing, that has since been termed an anomaly. Nevertheless, this observation may provide the explanation for some of the puzzles -- the contradictions of experimental tests vis-a-vis historical fact -- that have for years persisted about the incendiary consequences of nuclear explosions in or near urban complexes. Operation DIRECT COURSE offers an opportunity to resolve a part of the quandary. The question to be answered is whether fires of the rapid fire-growth-·to-flashover type·, as associated with nuclear thermal-pulse scenarios, are as susceptible to extinction as the current doctrine supposes. This paper describes an experiment designed to gain an answer to that question.