LPG mine clearance

I had the pleasure recently of examining a small land mine, fortunately safely disarmed. This particular mine has a rubber diaphram on the top which when pressed down detonates the mine.

My assumption is that a sudden incease in air pressure would press the diaphram and set it off.

The proposed mine clearance machine is a heavy tracked vehicle like a small bulldozer fitted with a short length of large diameter concrete pipe. Approximately 8 feet in diameter and about 6 feet long. A sort of concrete ring rather than a pipe.

This pipe is mounted on hydraulic lift arms so that it can be lowered towards the ground. When in this position an explosive, heavier than air, gas is released into the ring while a simple coil or mageto device is fed to a spark gap inside the ring. The spark discharge is repeated while the gas flows in and when an explosive mixture is created it explodes and so detonates any mines that may be under the area covered by the explosion.

Most small mines will be contained within the ring and safely vented upwards. In the case of a bigger mine the only loss may be the cheap concrete pipe provided of course that the front of the bulldozer is adequately protected.

After each explosion the vehicle moves foward and repeats the process.

For safety sake the whole system could be remote controlled.