Jet-Flow From Shock Tubes

Abstract : This project was designed to map the magnitude and extent of the high velocity jet flow exiting shock tubes. The flow was measured by installing stagnation probes along three blast lines and by supplementing these measurements with calibrated displacement cubes. The side-on and stagnation overpressure versus time were measured, and from that, the side-on and stagnation impulse were calculated. The stagnation impulse showed a large drop in magnitude as the blast line was moved from the zero line to a 1.5 and then to a 3-diameter offset. A helium driver was used in the 2.54-cm-diameter shock tube to simulate an explosion in a storage magazine. Results are presented in the form of stagnation impulse versus distance along the three blast lines. The significance of these findings is that the present quantity-distance criteria for munitions stored in underground magazines are based on side-on peak overpressure, but our results show that the peak stagnation pressure and impulse are much greater. At a distance where 10.3-kPa (1.5 psi) side-on pressure was measured, a 49.6-kPa (7.2 psi) stagnation pressure was measured. At the same distance, a side-on impulse was 12.6 kPa-ms (1.83 psi-ms), while the stagnation impulse was 134 kPa-ms (20.2 psi-ms)--a dramatic difference. Keywords: Airblast; Blast waves; Exit blast; Overpressure; Stagnation pressure; Cube displacement; Shock tubes; Munition storage; Helium driver.