High-Energy Air Shock Study in a Steel Pipe,

Abstract : A modified Voitenko compressor was used to generate a 43 mm/microsec air shock in 20-mm-i.d. 6-m long steel pipe containing ambient atmospheric air. Fiber-optic ports provided diaphragm burst time, time-of-arrival data and velocity of the shock front along the pipe. Pressure profiles were obtained at higher enthalpy shock propagation than ever before and at many locations down the pipe. Between 0.10- and 5.0-m from the diaphragm the peak pressure being the shock front decayed from 3.5- to 0.008 GPa. Over this same interval the velocity of the shock front attenuated from 43- to 1-mm/microsec.