Explosive Cutting Technologies Applied to Ship Dismantling

In this proposal, state-of-the-art demolition techniques based on a newly patented method (US 6,530,325 B2) are applied to ship dismantling to decrease the manpower and time necessary to dismantle a naval vessel. This method utilizes the cutting and breaking capabilities of explosives to create openings in plating, thereby allowing the use of large hydraulic shears as a primary means of ship dismantling. The method has been used successfully for the scrapping of floating structures as large as 210 ft long and 35 ft wide. In addition, a suite of more conventional explosive cutting and explosive shearing techniques used in the explosives demolition industry will be evaluated for its utility in ship dismantling. These include the use of shaped charges for cutting steel support structures, and of explosive shearing charges (similar to those used in explosive bolts) for shearing large items such as shafts.