INVESTIGATION OF THE NUCLEAR-EXPLOSION EFFECT ON ASTEROIDS

Impact of an asteroid on the Earth could be catastrophic. Deflection a nd fragmentation of such asteroids by surface and underground nuclear explosives has been proposed. The aim of this investigation is the opt imization of explosive effects by varying of the explosive depth and c harge. The study is based on nonlinear thermomechanics of an elastovis coplastic damaged medium. For numerical simulation Godunov's type sche me on unstructured grid is used. The deflecting impulse depends on the power and depth of the charge, and the physical and strength properti es of asteroid material. The process of dynamical vaporization and dis integration of asteroid material around the burst point as well as the generation of intensive jet is also investigated.