Damage Quantification for SPE-DAG Explosions by Spall and Elevation Change

Session: Explosion Seismology Advances
Type: Oral
Date: 4/29/2020
Time: 10:45 AM
Room: 240
Description: 

Damage is created in the geologic unit within which an explosion occurs. Damage is manifest in different forms such as an elevation change of the ground surface or spall observed on accelerometers. We are studying these two manifestations of damage in order to reconcile them, with the goal to develop a new seismic source model for the purpose of discriminating and monitoring explosions. The Source Physics Experiment (SPE) is a series of highly instrumented chemical explosions at the Nevada National Security Site with individual experiment yields ranging from 100kg to 10ton. The experiment has two phases: a first series, between 2010 and 2016, of 6 explosions in a borehole in a granite outcrop and a series, in 2019, of four explosions in an alluvium emplacement. The dense deployment of instruments for SPE with sensors both at the surface and in depth offers the opportunity to study damage for a range of scales. Previous work has allowed quantification of damage for the first phase of SPE as a secondary source of high-frequency Rg waves (Larmat, Rougier, & Patton, 2017) and as a source of variable-magnitude surface deformation (Schultz-Fellenz, E. S. et al. 2018; submitted). In this work, we will present surface topographic change data from individual SPE experiments. We will also perform seismic analysis in search of spall quantification. We will also present hydrodynamic modeling with the Hybrid Optimization Software Suite (HOSS) developed at LANL which will be coupled with a seismic code, SPECFEM3D. This work is the first step for investigating reasons for and quantifying differences between where spallation was sensed for SPE and where surface deformation occurred.

References: Larmat, C. S., E. Rougier and H. J. Patton (2017), Bull. Seismol. Soc. Am., 107(1), 43–50; Schultz-Fellenz, E.S., R.T. Coppersmith, A.J. Sussman, et al. (2018) Pure Appl. Geophys. 175, 3159–3177; Schultz-Fellenz, E.S., E.M. Swanson, A.J. Sussman, et al., submitted to Remote Sensing of Environment.

Presenting Author: Carene Larmat

Authors