Interaction between underwater explosion bubbles and soil–water interface: A numerical and experimental study

To explore the interaction between underwater explosion bubbles and soil–water interface, a near soil–water interface underwater explosion model based on the arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian method was established in this work. The peak pressure of the shock wave, maximum bubble radius, and bubble evolution in free-field and bottom-charge underwater explosions determined from the proposed simulation were highly consistent with the experimental results, thereby validating the proposed numerical model. The effects of the explosion distance and amount of explosive charge on the bubble–soil surface interaction were evaluated. The results showed that the reflection coefficient of the soil–water interface was in the range of 1.204–1.250, suggesting that it was hardly affected by the explosion distance and amount of explosive charge. The attenuation coefficient of the saturated soil was found to be 1.058. With the decrease in the explosion distance, the period and maximum radius of the bubbles slightly increased, and soil deformation increased as the lower surface of the bubbles was closer to the soil surface. For explosion distances of 0.3 and 0.4 m, only an overall movement of the soil surface was observed. When the explosion distance was 0.2 m or lower, a powerful downward jet was generated upon the pulsation of the first bubble, resulting in craters and slender depressions in the soil. With the increase in the amount of explosive charge, the period and maximum radius of the bubbles increased, and soil deformation also increased. These findings are expected to help advance our understanding of underwater explosion dynamics.