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Laboratory Simulation of Explosions Using Conical Shock Tubes

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Abstract

Shock tubes are routinely used across laboratories to simulate and understand blast events that are beyond a standoff distance of 5 m from an explosive charge. If we wish to simulate distances which are even closer, we find a formidable barrier in the form of shock formation distance, which is inherent to these facilities. In this work, we propose to use a (conical) shock tube having a continuously diverging cross-section to overcome this limitation. This paper puts forward the rationale behind using such a facility, some analytical relations using Chisnell’s work to characterize the conical shock tube, and some experiments that validate our assumptions.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Mr. Rahul Ramesh, project engineer at Super-Wave Technology Private Limited, Bangalore, and Mr. Gangadhar Murthy, support staff at our laboratory (LHSR) in IISc, for helping with the experiments. We also thank the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), New Delhi, for funding this research.

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Correspondence to I. Obed Samuelraj .

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Obed Samuelraj, I., Jagadeesh, G. (2019). Laboratory Simulation of Explosions Using Conical Shock Tubes. In: Sasoh, A., Aoki, T., Katayama, M. (eds) 31st International Symposium on Shock Waves 1. ISSW 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91020-8_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91020-8_14

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91019-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91020-8

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