PDV and shock physics: application to nitro methane shock-detonation transition and particles ejection

Heterodyne Velocimetry (or Photonic Doppler Velocimetry) has turned out to be a major tool to study the phenomena occurring in detonics and shock wave experiments. With accessible velocities ranging form a few m/s to 30,000 m/s, a very high sensitivity, a dynamics of more than 20 dB and a multi-velocity capability, one can understand why this technique opens new fields of study. This article is aimed at presenting an outlook of the setups and configurations which have been tested. We will connect this outlook to a quick overview of different kinds of experiments that could be achieved. In a first part we will remind how the system works. We will then detail the many setups that have already been put to the test, with different possible hardware configurations responding to different uses and different probes aimed at sensing specific phenomena. We also present our Matlab© based software developed to process the signals. Finally we will go through the different applications on which PDV was implemented, both in a detonics context (free surface, particles and Nitro Methane - or NM - characterization) and in lab experiments (measurement of laser driven shocks on metallic targets).