[FPSchazly]

Originally Posted by p7p8

Can you describe methodology of your calculations?

My methodology is very simple. Let me start by saying I know nothing specific about how explosions work, but I was intrigued by this passage on a Wikipedia article on depth charges:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

The killing radius of a depth charge depends on the depth of detonation, the proximity of detonation to the submarine, the payload of the depth charge and the size and strength of the submarine hull. A depth charge of approximately 100 kg of TNT (400 MJ) would normally have a killing radius (hull breach) of only 3–4 meters (10–13 ft) against a conventional 1000-ton submarine, while the disablement radius (where the submarine is not sunk but put out of commission) would be approximately 8–10 meters (26–33 ft). A larger payload increases the radius only relatively little because the effect of an underwater explosion decreases as the cube of the distance to the target.

Using this information, I used an equivalence to determine the kill and disablement ranges for a 5 kt nuclear warhead. 100 kg of TNT ~ 0.1 ton.

0.1 ton / (3 meters)^3 = 5000 / (X meters)^3

(I'm basically saying 0.1 ton divided by 3m^3 is equivalent to "kill", so I set 5000 ton / X meters ^3 equal to that and solving for X. This is nothing more than a simple extrapolation.)

Solving for X produces a killing range of approximately 110 - 150 m and a disablement range of approximately 300 - 370 m.

Let's discuss my assumptions. I'm assuming a large nuclear sub (~7000-10000 t displacement) behaves similarly to a 1000 t conventional sub in response to explosive damage. This is probably not a good assumption, as smaller objects tend to be stronger than larger objects due to the square-cube law; however, the larger nuclear submarines also have more mass to absorb explosion energy. I am not sure which would be the dominant effect.

These numbers on Wikipedia also have no citation, so I'm not sure where these kill and disablement ranges come from. However, assuming the numbers are correct, I was just curious to see what the numbers would be assuming a nuclear-sized warhead and extrapolating using a simple method. It's an interesting result, it's not one I would expect, and suggests more investigation.

That Wikipedia article also discusses more effects, such as primary and secondary shockwaves, the depth of the explosion, explosion shockwave reflections off the bottom of the ocean, and other things that are not considered in my simple calculation.

Originally Posted by jaop99

Yeah I agree it could take damage, but in the game they were massive!, I think that Crazy Ivan changed something in the damage model of the Shkval from the previous version.

Based on my experience in vanilla and RA, the Shkvals are about equal in damage in both versions. I haven't seen anything to suggest the RA Shkvals are more damaging.