Bomb Damage Assessment, by Scott Jacobson

Far too many people who should know better, continue to mewl over President Trump’s use of “obliterated,” when assessing the damage to Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities. To incessantly quibble over something so obviously and completely devastating, without knowing many of the principals, physics and technical aspects at play is simply “signaling” and WITHOUT any virtue. To respond is playing into a Child’s desire for attention.

Here’s a Reader’s Digest version, the assumptions of which are based on 8th grade understandings of physics, 30 years in Civil, Structural and Mechanical Engineering, and an entire life of reading about munitions of every age since Napoleon.

#1 If you understand the power of one stick of dynamite, you can conceive the power of several thousand sticks, compressing the air in a confined space with little escape (the small entry holes, hundreds of feet in length). This is called “overpressure.” It disintegrates anything that isn’t solid, and then even that is damaged severely, to be explained later.

#2 The things inside this mountain, required to create the environment to do this work, are neither hardened, sturdy nor strong, in any sense of the word.

The scientific equipment is very fragile, the ductwork, cable trays for electric and pipe hangers quite flimsy…Most of these being sensitive to heat, combining that with pressure twice that of the bottom of the Mariana Trench, I assure you no glass, plumbing, piping, wiring or lighting survived.

#3 The mechanical systems and controls required to condition air, control humidity, remove exhaust, provide oxygen, maintain proper pressure, remove waste, provide water… Under the afore mentioned temperature and pressure, would hardly resemble anything useful.

#4 Structural design is the main thing which doomed these facilities, irreparably, and completely.

It’s quite simple: From the top, WWII Nazi design was utilized, to withstand explosions from above…Nothing structurally of these facilities was designed for a massive explosion from within.

All partition walls higher than three times their thickness are destroyed. Their design was neither suitable for tension nor compression. The load bearing walls were designed for vertical compression, not unimaginable horizontal pressure from such massive, multiple blasts.

The structural blast dome is largely intact. No matter. Defeating it was never necessary. Simply penetrating it provided the fatal blow.

Structurally, mechanically, environmentally, these facilities are not only completely unsalvageable, but they are now death traps, full of fumes from burning wiring, melted glass, silica from pulverized concrete, and no oxygen. Yes, ANYONE is accurate, if they say these facilities are destroyed.