"Geoffrey Sinclair" <
gsinc...@froggy.com.au> wrote:
> >
> > Your theoretical ramblings have not relevance to reality
> > unfortunately. I've seen tables showing that a depth charge that was
> > effective to 15m at 20m deteriorate to 5m at 100m.
>
> So provide a link to the tables. There are such tables in relation
> to air attacks, which have everything to do with the selection of
> explosion depth and its effect on kill chances, the shallower
> settings resulted in more kills. I would like to see the tables as
> all the standard allied depth charges had lethal distances of under
> 15 metres.
Indeed. There is a great deal of difference
between the percentage effectiveness of a
depth charge attack against subs at various
depths and the lethality of s depth charge
at various depths.
The former is reduced by the greater time
for the submarine to move away, putting
distance between it and the explosion.
As to the reported claim above...
The pressure at 60 meters is 85 psi.
The pressure at 100 meters is 142 psi.
The crush depth of a Type VII U-boat was less than
300 meters; the pressure there is 426 psi.
The kill is the result of hull failure under
ambient pressure plus the overpressure of the
shock wave from the explosion.
The overpressure wave expands spherically,
so its force is inversely proportional to
the square of the distance from the explosion.
If the kill radius at 60 meters is 15 meters,
then the overpressure at that distance would
be about 340 psi.
By _my_ thinklng, the kill radius at 100 meters
would then be 16 meters, where the overpressure
would be about 280 psi - 60 psi less, but made
up by the additional 60 psi of ambient pressure.
But according to these tables you mention, the
the explosion would be somehow reduced, so the
overpressure would be less than 35 psi at 15 meters,
and reach 300 psi (the kill level) only out t0
5 meters.
I can't imagine how ambient pressure could somehow
suppress an explosion. All the detonation effects
that I know of happen without regard to ambient
pressure. For instance, when the explosive "lenses"
around the plutonium core of a fission bomb
detonate - they are in contact with the plutonium,
and deform it immediately. if the bomb was 1,000
under water, it would still work.