Probabilistic assessment of tornado-borne missile speeds. Final report

A procedure was developed for estimating speeds with which postulated missiles hit any given set of targets in a nuclear power plant or similar installation. Hit speeds corresponding to probabilities of occurrence of .0000001 were calculated for a given nuclear power plant under various assumptions concerning the magnitude of the force opposing missile take-off, direction of tornado axis of translation, number and location of missiles, and size of target area. The results of the calculations are shown to depend upon the parameters: CDA/m, where CD = drag coefficient, A = projected area, m = mass of missiles, and the ratio, k, between the minimum aerodynamic force required to cause missile take-off, and the weight of the missile