Shock tube

About: Shock tube is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 6963 publications have been published within this topic receiving 99372 citations.

CXLV. The quasi-cylindrical shock tube

Abstract: Summary The disturbance produced behind a shock wave of arbitrary strength, travelling along a tube of varying cross section, is investigated. The shape of the cross section is arbitrary and the problem is linearized on the basis of small variations in area along the length of the tube. It is found that if the initial cross sectional area is S, and there is a net change in area of amount [AN], then the consequent change in pressure behind the shock is where (p 1−p 0) is the initial pressure discontinuity across the shock. The parameter K decreases monotonically with the shock strength and 0·5⩾K>0·394. More generally it is shown that the pressure is affected by two distinct perturbations superimposed on the initial flow, namely a permanent modification arising directly from the variations in cross section, and a transient disturbance reflected from the shock and propagated with sonic velocity relative to the main flow. Expressions for both these contributions are obtained.

Experimental and modeling study of methyl cyclohexane pyrolysis and oxidation.

Abstract: Although the combustion chemistry of aliphatic hydrocarbons has been extensively documented, the oxidation of cyclic hydrocarbons has been studied to a much lesser extent. To provide a deeper understanding of the combustion chemistry of naphthenes, the oxidation of methylcyclohexane was studied in a series of high-temperature shock tube experiments. Ignition delay times for a series of mixtures, of varying methylcyclohexane/oxygen equivalence ratios (φ = 0.5, 1.0, 2.0), were measured over reflected shock temperatures of 1200−2100 K and reflected shock pressures of 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 atm. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism has been assembled to simulate the shock tube results and flow reactor experiments, with good agreement observed.

Shock‐Tube Performance at Low Initial Pressure

Abstract: An electron beam densitometer has been used to investigate the behavior of a conventional 1⅛‐in. i.d. shock tube operating at initial pressures of the order of 1 mm Hg. These experiments show that such a shock tube does not perform as predicted by simple theory. Most of the experiments were performed in argon with shock Mach numbers ranging between 1.2 and 7.0. The most striking observation was that for a given shock velocity, Ms = 1.6, the distance between the shock wave and contact surface as observed at the densitometer was proportional to initial pressure and independent of expansion chamber length over a tenfold range of tube length. At an initial pressure of 0.5 mm Hg the time interval between the arrival of the shock and the contact surface varied between 600 μsec at Ms = 1.2 and 20 μsec at Ms = 7.0. The diaphragm pressure ratio (Ar ‐ Ar) required to produce a shock of velocity Ms = 1.6 varied from 200 at an initial pressure of 0.25 mm Hg to 20 at an initial pressure of 50 mm Hg. For a given diaphragm pressure ratio the shock velocity decreased with distance in a highly nonlinear manner. The density behind the shock wave was observed to increase significantly before the arrival of the contact surface under all conditions. This surprising shock‐tube behavior is believed to be related to severe laminar boundary layer development behind the shock wave at low initial pressures.

Shock waves in a liquid containing gas bubbles

Abstract: Considerations of continuity, momentum and energy together with an equation of state are applied to the propagation of plane shock waves in a gas + liquid mixture. The shock-wave relations assume a particularly simple form when the temperature rise across a shock, which is shown to be small for a very wide range of conditions, is neglected. In particular, a simple relation emerges between the shock propagation speed and the pressure on the high-pressure side of the shock, the density of the liquid and the relative proportions, by mass and volume, of gas and liquid in the mixture. It is shown from entropy considerations that a rarefaction wave cannot propagate itself without change of form, and it is argued that a compression wave can be expected to steepen into a shock wave. Consideration of the collision between two normal shock waves, moving in opposite directions, suggests that the strengths of the two shocks are unaltered by the interaction between them. This implies, in particular, that, when a shock impinges normally on a plane wall, the pressure ratio across the reflected shock is equal to that across the incident shock. When the mass ratio of gas to liquid in the mixture is allowed to tend to infinity, the various shock-wave relations for a mixture, derived with the temperature rise across the shock neglected, assume the same limiting form as the corresponding relations for a perfect gas when the ratio of specific heats tends to unity. The theoretical discussion has been illustrated by experiments with a small gas + liquid mixture shock tube. Samples of the records, obtained when the passage of a shock changes the amount of light transmitted through the mixture to a photoelectric cell, illustrate the steepening of a compression wave and the flattening of a rarefaction wave. Measurements confirm the theoretical relation for the propagation speed of shock waves. Reasonably good experi­mental confirmation is also reported of the theoretical predictions for the pressure which arises following the normal impact of a shock wave on a plane wall.