Bunker Busters

[pmccarthy]

I know virtually nothing about military weapons. But I do know about blasting rock and have done my fair share of it when I was young. It is hard to understand how those bunker buster bombs could damage a deep underground facility. Quite a few times I have been a couple of hundred metres to the side from a blast a couple of tonnes of explosive at a depth of around 1000 metres below the surface. I put my fingers in my ears, and stood in a side tunnel, but was never in danger of being blown up. Nothing was damaged in the mine, other than the rock being broken where it was intended. This happens all the time in large mines with large stope blasts.

 

So if the bombs did not penetrate the facility, the shock wave probably didn't destabilise the tunnels and galleries very much. If they had centrifuges or delicate machinery, then it could certainly have been wrecked. My point is that the tunnels and galleries can probably very easily be reinstated and are not actually destroyed.

[old man emu]

The earthquake bomb, or seismic bomb, or bunker buster bomb, was a concept that was invented by the British aeronautical engineer Barnes Wallis early in World War II. A seismic bomb differs somewhat in concept from a traditional bomb, which usually explodes at or near the surface and destroys its target directly by explosive force; in contrast, a seismic bomb is dropped from high altitude to attain very high speed as it falls and upon impact, penetrates and explodes deep underground, causing massive caverns or craters known as camouflets, as well as intense shockwaves. 

 

Note that the way these bombs work is first expending their momentum to get through rock layers, then detonating their high explosive charge to cause the surrounding rock to break up. I would have to think that the effectiveness of these devices would very much depend on the type of rock they had to go through. Sedimentary rock is relatively "softer" than igneous rock, so would be easier to fracture. I have no doubts that the Yanks know full well what teh rock types are overlaying the nuclear facilities they were hitting.

 

Let's see if we can work out some values for impact speed and the kinetic energy of the bomb at point ofinitial contact. To calculate the velocity of a falling object, you can use the formula: v = √(2gh), where 'v' is the final velocity, 'g' is the acceleration due to gravity (approximately 9.8 m/s²), and 'h' is the height from which the object is falling. In a report on the mission, I heard that the bombs were dropped from 40,000 feet, which is 12,192 metres - call it 12,000 metres.

 

Filling in the formula we have v = sqrt (2 x 9.81 x 12,000) = sqrt (235440) = 485.22 m/s (1746 kph)

 

A bunker buster bomb weighs 13607 kg.

 

The kinetic energy of the bomb at first contact is KE = 1/2 * m * v², where KE is the kinetic energy, m is the mass of the object, and v is the velocity of the object. 

KE = 0.5 x 13607 x (485.22)^2 = 1,601,805,483 Joules

 

 One joule is equal to the amount of work done when a force of one newton displaces a body through a distance of one metre in the direction of that force.

 

And from here on I'm lost, except to say that at point of contact, that bomb has a lot of energy to lose before it stops.

 

[facthunter]

Things like that were made of Depleted Uranium because of it's high density and hardness.   As used in Iraq.  It leaves radioactive residue. These ones required multiple Hits at Each location. Apparently the Planning took a while, AND the decision was before that. The whole operation did go off pretty well. Thats separate from the discussion on the wisdom of it TRUMP pulled out of the Inspection agreement   THEY  (USA) downed A Civilian A- 300 (BY mistake) and Trump has assassinated one of their top Guys in the Past when he was within Iran.  Trump has solid Jewish Connections and desire to INVEST (very [profitably)  there.   Nev