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3D Nonlinear Modeling of Underground Nuclear Explosions and the Generation of Seismic Waves

Understanding of the explosion source is fundamental to nuclear monitoring. In spite of decades of research on this subject, there are still many unknowns, particularly when there is strong topography, tectonic stresses or multiple simultaneous explosions. We have developed a 3D Lagrangian Finite Element Code, CRAM3D, that allows calculations of complex explosion emplacement conditions and can directly address these problems. CRAM3D has been developed over more than a decade, but the history of the code is actually much longer, as it was derived from an earlier axisymmetric code CRAM developed during the nuclear containment program. Although the structure of CRAM3D is more modern and quite different, CRAM3D includes material models from CRAM that were developed over many years based on nuclear explosion data. The output of CRAM3D interfaces with code that uses the representation theorem to propagate the near-source motion to regional and teleseismic distances.

CRAM3D uses MPI to split a calculation over multiple processors and so has the capability to address very large problems. It has been used recently to model explosions at the North Korean Test Site, where topography strongly affects seismic waves; to model 13 explosions at the Degelen Mountain test site, where topography and tectonic stresses are important; and to model explosions at the Novaya Zemlya test site, which has both strong topography and multiple simultaneous explosions.

Session: Advances in Seismoacoustic Methods for Explosion Monitoring I

Type: Oral

Room: Cedar

Date: 4/22/2022

Presentation Time: 08:45 AM Pacific

Presenting Author: Jeffry Stevens

Student Presenter: No

Additional Authors