DIABLO HAWK EVENT, cavity pressure sensors package ground shock isolation experiment. Final report, 20 June 1977-30 November 1978

DIABLO HAWK was an underground tunnel test to investigate the effects of a nuclear explosion on various structures and systems. Systems, Science and Software fielded an experiment to demonstrate the feasibility of mounting pressure gauges with built-in electronics in a manner to effectively isolate the ground shock and permit continuous output (pressure reading) for a period starting prior to zero time and continuing until power is terminated at the recording trailers. The shock isolation package was mounted to the end-of-stemming bulkhead located in the TAPS crosscut (the cross-drift leading to the TAPS from the by-pass drift). To evaluate the effectiveness of the shock isolation system, two high g rated accelerometers were attached to the stemming bulkhead and two lower rated accelerometers were attached inside the package. Continuous signals were recorded from each of the four accelerometers as well as from the two pressure gauges from minus two minutes until the recording trailer power was terminated at plus five minutes. The two bulkhead-mounted accelerometers showed good agreement with groundshock arrival at 72 ms after zero time and a peak acceleration of 71g. Inside the shock isolated package the first acceleration was recorded at 77 ms and the peak acceleration was 10.8g.more » The two package mounted accelerometer signals were essentially identical.« less