Chapter 2
SUMMARY OF EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAMS
2.1

TASK UNIT 3, DOD PROGRAMS

Program 1, Blast and Shock Measurements
The thirteen projects of Program 1 investigated blast and shock para
meters and effects produced by two underwater shots, two surface shots, a
the VHA shot. The general objective was to define the environments produced by blast waves from nuclear detonations, both to increase our under
standing of basic phenomena, and to support projects measuring effects pr«
duced by blast waves.
Areas of particular interest were underwater and air blast pressures
produced by shots Wahoo and Umbrella, underground shock phenomena produced by shots Koa and Cactus, and blast wave characteristics (including e
ergy partition) of shot Yucca.
Ground Shock

The entire DOD effort on study of ground shock phenomena was concentrated on two surface shots, Cactus and Koa. Complete air blast lines
were installed on these shots also so that the air blast input contributing t
underground effects would be known. Shot Cactus was chosen to provide a
low yield tie-in of underground data with similar data obtained on Operatio
Plumbbob at NTS. Shot Koa was instrumented so that comparisons (Cactus
vs Koa) could be made between data from low and high yield shots under
Simiiar soil conditions.
All five projects participating on shots Cactus and Koa successfully
tained the larger part of desired data. Results of individual projects are
summarized below.

Air Blast. Complete air blast data were obtained on both shots. Ov
pressures ranged from
psi at 470 ft to
psi at 7868 ft ground rang
on shot Cactus and from
psi at 1830 ft to
psi at 6024 ft on shot
Koa. Dynamic pressure data at 3-ft heights require further data reduction
before results can be reported. Maximum overpressures from both shots
when scaled to 1 kt at standard sea level conditions agreed well with a 1.623

Select target paragraph3