Explosion analysis from images: Trinity and Beirut

Diaz, Jorge S.

doi:10.48550/arxiv.2009.05674

Cited by 4 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…A few attempts have already been made to evaluate the energy released by this explosion, with contradicting results. Diaz 2020 measures the evolution of the fireball from 26 data points by using publicly available videos to yield a energy of 1 kt of T.N.T. Rigby et al 2020 use also available public videos and derive the times of arrival of the shock wave at 38 different locations, they use empirical relations linking the scaled time of arrival with the scaled distance to yield an energy of 0.5 kt T.N.T with a higher bound of 1.2 kt T.N.T.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beirut explosion: Energy yield from the fireball time evolution in the first 230 milliseconds

Aouad,

Chemissany,

Mazzali

et al. 2020

Preprint

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The evolution of the fireball resulting from the August 2020 Beirut explosion is traced using amateur footage taken during the first ∼ 230 ms after the detonation. 38 frames separated by ∼ 16.66 -33.33 ms are extracted from 6 different videos located precisely on the map. Measurements of the time evolution of the radius R t of the shock wave are traced by the fireball at consecutive time sequence t. Pixel scales for the videos are calibrated by de-projecting the existing grains silos building for which accurate drawings are available and by defining the line of sight incident angles. The energy available to drive the shock wave at early times can be calculated through E = 10 2b Kρ o where b is a fitted parameter dependant on the relation between R t and t. K is a constant depending on the ratio of specific heats of the atmosphere and ρ 0 is the undisturbed gas density. A total energy yield of E ≈ 1.3 × 10 12 Joules with a lower bound of 9.8 × 10 11 and an upper bound of ∼ 1.7 × 10 12 or the equivalent of ∼ 310 405 235 tons of T.N.T. is found. Our energy yields are different from other published studies using the same method. This can present an argument that if the compound that exploded is fuel rich ammonium nitrate (ANFO), then

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we use the theoretical method described by Taylor 1950a; Taylor 1950b and lately used by Diaz 2020 for the same event. We extend this investigation by adding more data and by precisely calibrating the scaling.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beirut explosion: Energy yield from the fireball time evolution in the first 230 milliseconds

Aouad,

Chemissany,

Mazzali

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…As depicted by the 3D scans and tiltmeters' data obtained by [11][12][13][14][15], the high rate of the silos' tilting over the past two and half years was manifested by the appearance of new cracks on the bottom of the silos' walls. These cracks values mean that the damage is not superficial but deep and extends to the pile foundation.…”

Section: Repair and Strengthening Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seismic Assessment and Strengthening of the Remaining Beirut Port Silos Damaged After the 2020 August Blast- A Case Study

Ismail,

Raphael,

Kaddah

2023

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Computational Methods in Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering (COM

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In 2020, the Beirut port silos, located few meters away from the center of August 4 explosion, were severely damaged. The first and second row of Beirut silos/East side were destroyed. However, the third row of silos was damaged and experienced an immediate tilt, except the last two silos in the South block (silos #130 and 137) that were destroyed. As a result, the remaining standing silos, have been monitored since the day of the blast using 3D scan measurements and triaxial inclinometers, experienced severe tilting over time. In July 2022, the rate of silos' inclination increased after a fire broke out in the North block silos due to grains' fermentation. As a result, in August 2022, the last silos of the North block fell after resisting severe tilting for two years with a maximum permanent vertical inclination of 2 m. Consequently, the 8.5 m diameter-42 silos supported by a 2500 pile foundation consisted as of August 2022 of 6 standing South block silos. In this paper, the authors describe the status of these silos and the performed structural health monitoring. A 3D finite element model was built in Abaqus to analyze the behavior of the silos under different seismic loadings. The results are evaluated in terms of horizontal displacements at top of the silos which are used to assess the stability of the structure. The obtained results show that the South block silos will exhibit serious damage and possible failure in case of moderate intensity earthquakes. Therefore, a repair and strengthening method to preserve the remaining standing silos using numerical analysis is proposed.

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“…In most introductory engineering fluid mechanics and thermodynamic courses, the work of Sir Geoffrey Ingram Taylor (TaylorI, 1950, TaylorII, 1950 is presented as an important application of dimensional analysis: using the Buckingham Pi theorem (Buckingham, 1914) to estimate the power of an atomic bomb by studying a few images of the blast. Over the years, there have been numerous surveys of Taylor's work (Deakin, 2011a,b;Díaz, 2021), all emphasizing that Taylor did not invoke the dimension reduction analysis he is often incorrectly credited with. Arguably, his work was far more profound; starting with underlying equations and introducing a series of simplifications in concert with observations to work out a chosen quantity of interest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting Taylor’s analysis of the Trinity test

Mone,

Seshadri

2024

DCE

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The atomic bomb uses fission of heavy elements to produce a large amount of energy. It was designed and deployed during World War II by the United States military. The first test of an atomic bomb occurred in July 1945 in New Mexico and was given the name Trinity; this test was not declassified until 1949. In that year, Geoffrey Ingram Taylor released two papers detailing his process in calculating the energy yield of the atomic bomb from pictures of the Trinity explosion alone. Many scientists made similar calculations concurrently, although Taylor is often accredited with them. Since then, many scientists have also attempted to calculate a yield through various methods. This paper walks through these methods with a focus on Taylor’s method—based on first principles—as well as redoing the calculations that he performed with modern tools. In this paper, we make use of state-of-the-art computer vision tools to find a more precise measurement of the blast radius, as well as using curve fitting and numerical integration methods. With more precise measurements we are able to follow in Taylor’s footstep toward a more accurate approximation.

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Explosion analysis from images: Trinity and Beirut

Cited by 4 publications

References 9 publications

Beirut explosion: Energy yield from the fireball time evolution in the first 230 milliseconds

Beirut explosion: Energy yield from the fireball time evolution in the first 230 milliseconds

Seismic Assessment and Strengthening of the Remaining Beirut Port Silos Damaged After the 2020 August Blast- A Case Study

Revisiting Taylor’s analysis of the Trinity test

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