Modelling of characteristics of a crater emerged from a surface explosion on the soil

The paper presents empirical and numerical models of characteristics of a crater emerged from a surface explosion of a small TNT charge on the soil. The proposed models can be useful for estimation of the explosive mass based on the crater characteristics. The models show satisfactory fitting with the experimental results and confirm the hypothesis that the crater characteristics depend on the explosive mass and contact area between the charge and the soil surface. Two equations for estimation of the explosive mass based on the crater volume are proposed.