Test-time extension behind reflected shock waves using CO2–He and C3H8–He driver mixtures

To study combustion chemistry at low temperatures in a shock tube, it is of great importance to increase experimental test times, and this can be done by tailoring the interface between the driver and driven gases. Using unconventional driver-gas tailoring with the assistance of tailoring curves, shock-tube test times were increased from 1 to 15 ms for reflected-shock temperatures below 1,000 K. Provided in this paper is the introduction of tailoring curves, produced from a one-dimensional perfect gas model for a wide range of driver gases and the production and demonstration of successful driver mixtures containing helium combined with either propane or carbon dioxide. The He/CO₂ and He/C₃H₈ driver mixtures provide a unique way to produce a tailored interface and, hence, longer test times, when facility modification is not an option. The tailoring curves can be used to guide future applications of this technique to other configurations. Nonreacting validation experiments using driver mixtures identified from the tailoring curves were performed over a range of reflected-shock temperatures from approximately 800 to 1,400 K, and some examples of ignition-time experiments that could not have otherwise been erformed are presented.     

A new, friction controlled, piston actuated diaphragmless shock tube driver

A new friction operated single piston shock tube driver design that is capable of generating shock waves of Mach number 1.1 to 2 is presented. By using different test gases and evacuating the driven section Mach 5 shock waves can easily be produced. The driver is efficient with shock wave Mach numbers within 9% of that predicted by ideal shock tube theory and the non-dimensional formation length lies between 20 and 40. The brake pad mechanism, that restrains the piston until tests commence, removes the necessity of venting an auxiliary chamber rapidly, thus speeding up the displacement of the piston. It is believed that the design is a practical, simple and cost effective way of generating reproducible shock tube tests with very short test turn around times, while removing the necessity of using a diaphragm and exposing the test gases to the atmosphere. Results for three pistons with masses of 4.4, 0.71 and 0.38 kg (brass, PVC and hollow aluminium respectively) with driver gauge pressures of between 2 and 50 bar (Mach 1.2 to 2) are given. Received 27 February 1998 / Accepted 8 July 1998     

Shock wave diffraction by a square cavity filled with dusty gas

A simple two-dimensional square cavity model is used to study shock attenuating effects of dust suspension in air. The GRP scheme for compressible flows was extended to simulate the fluid dynamics of dilute dust suspensions, employing the conventional two-phase approximation. A planar shock of constant intensity propagated in pure air over flat ground and diffracted into a square cavity filled with a dusty quiescent suspension. Shock intensities were and , dust loading ratios were and , and particle diameters were and {\rm \mu}$m. It was found that the diffraction patterns in the cavity were decisively attenuated by the dust suspension, particularly for the higher loading ratio. The particle size has a pronounced effect on the flow and wave pattern developed inside the cavity. Wall pressure histories were recorded for each of the three cavity walls, showing a clear attenuating effect of the dust suspension. Received 15 November 1999 / Accepted 25 October 2000     

Light scattering experiments and extended thermodynamics

Light in a gas is scattered on density fluctuations and the spectrum of the scattered light is influenced by the constitutive properties of the gas. The Navier-Stokes-Fourier theory does not always describe the spectrum of the scattered light in gases satisfactorily; it fails for small densities. Extended thermodynamics of many moments however may be used to predict the scattering spectra of dilute gases correctly. In this paper we compare the results of extended thermodynamics with measurements. Received: January 2, 1997     

Light scattering and sound propagation in polyatomic gases with classical degrees of freedom

In this work we analyze time-dependent problems like sound propagation and light scattering in dilute polyatomic gases with classical internal degrees of freedom by using a kinetic model of the Boltzmann equation that replaces the collision operator with a single relaxation-time term. Comparison of the theoretical results with available experimental data shows that the model equation can be used to describe the acoustic properties and the light scattering spectrum of dilute polyatomic gases as long as the external oscillation frequency is smaller than the frequency required for the translational and the internal degrees of freedom to come to thermal equilibrium.Received: 12 January 2004, Accepted: 2 February 2004, Published online: 16 April 2004PACS: 51.10. + y; 51.40. + p     

Over forty years of continuous research at UTIAS on nonstationary flows and shock waves

Analytical and experimental research on non-stationary shock waves, rarefaction waves and contact surfaces has been conducted continuously at UTIAS since its inception in 1948. Some unique facilities were used to study the properties of planar, cylindrical and spherical shock waves and their interactions. Investigations were also performed on shock-wave structure and boundary layers in ionizing argon, water-vapour condensation in rarefaction waves, magnetogasdynamic flows, and the regions of regular and various types of Mach reflections of oblique shock waves. Explosively-driven implosions have been employed as drivers for projectile launchers and shock tubes, and as a means of producing industrial-type diamonds from graphite, and fusion plasmas in deuterium. The effects of sonic-boom on humans, animals and structures have also formed an important part of the investigations. More recently, interest has focussed on shock waves in dusty gases, the viscous and vibrational structure of weak spherical blast waves in air, and oblique shock-wave reflections. In all of these studies instrumentation and computational methods have played a very important role. A brief survey of this work is given herein and in more detail in the relevant references.This article was processed using Springer-Verlag T_EX Shock Waves macro package 1990.     

Formation of a jet and vortices behind a shock wave reflected from a concave body

A jet and vortices have been observed when a plane shock wave reflects from a concave body in a shock tube. If the cavity is deep enough then two reflected shocks appear near its edges. Air, carbon tetrafluoride (CF) and dichlorodifluoromethane (CClF) were chosen as test gases. The flow was visualized with the aid of a conventional shadow technique. Pressure measurements at the body surface were also obtained. Numerical studies have been conducted using a two-dimensional inviscid model. There is a good qualitative agreement between the experimental and numerical results. Received 8 February 1996 / Accepted 30 June 1997     

Shock waves at microscales

We present a model for the effects of scale, via molecular diffusion phenomena, on the generation and propagation of shock waves. A simple parametrization of the shear stresses and heat flux at the wall leads to the determination of new jump conditions, which show that, for a given wave Mach number at small scales, the resulting particle velocities are lower but the pressures are higher. Also, the model predicts that the flow at small scale is isothermal and that the minimum wave velocity can be subsonic. Experiments with a miniature shock tube using low pressures to simulate the effects of small scale have shown qualitative agreement with the proposed model. In fact, the effects of scale appear even more important than what has been incorporated in the model.PACS: 47.40.-xReceived: 14 November 2002, Accepted: 2 April 2003, Published online: 18 June 2003     

Gas combination for shock wave enhancement

It was recently demonstrated that shock wave enhancement could be achieved when a shock propagates in a constant cross-section duct through pairs of air–helium layers having a continually decreasing width (Igra and Igra in Shock Waves 16(3):199–207). A parametric study was conducted aimed at finding a two-layered, light–heavy gas arrangement that yields maximal shock enhancement; the heavy and the light gases used were air and helium, respectively. Effects associated with changes in following parameters were investigated: the number of alternating heavy/light gas layers, the applied reduction ratio between successive layers thickness, and the initial shock wave Mach number.      

Light scattering and extended thermodynamics

The interaction of light and matter leads to the scattering of light and the scattered light carries information about the thermodynamic properties of the matter. The light scattered on dilute gases carries far more information about the gas than is comprised within the Navier-Stokes-Fourier theory of gases. It takes extended thermodynamics of many moments to satisfactorily describe the characteristic features of such light quantitatively.     

INTEGRAL COLLISION KERNEL FOR THE GROWTH OF AEROSOL PARTICLES

Integral collision kernel is elucidated using experimental results for titania, silica and alumina nanoparticles synthesized by FCVD process, and titania submicron particles synthesized in a tube furnace reactor. The integral collision kernel was obtained from a particle number balance equation by the integration of collision rates from the kinetic theory of dilute gases for the free-molecule regime, from the Smoluchowski theory for the continuum regime, and by a semi-empirical interpolation for the transition regime between the two limiting regimes. Comparisons have been made on particle size and the integral collision kernel, showing that the predicted integral collision kernel agreed well with the experimental results in Knudsen number range from about 1.5 to 20.     

Compact fluidized bed sorber for CO2 capture

Multiphase CFD is used to design a compact fluidized bed sorber for CO2 removal from flue gases using sodium or potassium carbonate pellets. The sorber sizes are much smaller than commercial amine absorbers and smaller than other proposed dry adsorbers. The size reduction is due to the elimination of dilute regions that cause bypassing. With proper solids feeding we eliminated the usual core-annular regime found in circulating fluidized beds.     

Experimental study of the shock response of an HMX-based explosive

Experiments have been fired in which the HMX-based explosive EDC37 was subjected to one-dimensional shocks generated by plate impact. The response of the explosive to sustained shocks, double shocks and a short-pulse shock was monitored using embedded particle velocity gauges and shock tracker gauges. The final stages of the growth to detonation process were similar for all of the different input profiles. A strong reactive wave grows and accelerates to overtake and dominate the initial shock. It is shown that the curves showing the growth of the shock and the reactive wave in the sustained shock experiments can be normalised to give universal curves. These curves provides a reference against which to compare the explosive's response, not only to single sustained shocks, but also to double shock and short-pulse inputs. The treatment provides an empirical route for predicting the effects of sustained and more complex shocks on EDC37. PACS 47.40.-x; 82.33.Vx     

Effects of a Single-pulse Energy Deposition on Steady Shock Wave Reflection

The effects of energy deposition in the free stream on steady regular and Mach shock wave reflections are studied numerically. A short-duration laser pulse is focused upstream of the incident shock waves. It causes formation of the expanding blast wave and the residual hot-spot interacting in a complex way with the steady shock wave reflection. It was found that the laser energy addition in the free stream may force the transition from regular to Mach reflection in the dual solution domain. In contrast to previously reported numerical results, the transition from Mach to regular reflection has not been reproduced in our refined computations since the Mach reflection is restored after the flow perturbation.     

A design of a two-dimensional,supersonic KH experiment on OMEGA-EP

An experiment meant to investigate the evolution of single mode Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability in the supersonic regime is presented and theoretically analyzed. This experiment is intended to provide a direct measurement of the two-dimensional vortex evolution so that the high-Mach-number effects can be measured. The proposed design takes advantage of the ability of OMEGA-EP to drive experiments for up to 30 ns to produce steady conditions for KH that endure long enough to observe substantial growth. KH growth for the proposed design has been analyzed using two-dimensional numerical simulations. The results were compared to synthetic temporal KH numerical simulations using non-dimensional scaling in the low and high Mach number regime. The comparisons show that the growth in the high Mach number regime is expected to be suppressed by up to a factor of two. The effects of two-dimensional rarefactions from the lateral boundaries of the experimental system were also investigated. It was found that they introduce no major uncertainties or hazards to the experiment. We produced simulated radiographs, which show that the proposed experimental system will enable observation of the KH structures. An experiment of this kind has not yet been performed, and therefore would serve to validate numerical results and analytical models presented here and in the literature.     

Reflection of shock wave from a compression corner in a particle-laden gas region

We investigated in this paper the progression of a shock-wave reflected from a compression corner in a particle-laden gas medium using a TVD class numerical technique and a MacCormack scheme. For a gas-only flow, the numerical results agreed well with the existing experimental data, suggesting that the gas phase is correctively solved. The effect of particle size and mass fraction ratio is investigated for a dilute gas-particle flow. It has been shown that the shock-wave diffraction and the flow configuration after the shock can become remarkably different from the gas-only flow depending on the particle parameters. Relaxation phenomenon due to the momentum drag and the heat exchange between the gas and the particle phases is explained.Graduate Student of Korea Advanced Institute of Science and TechnologyThis article was processed using Springer-Verlag T_EX Shock Waves macro package 1990.     

On the role of turbulence in detonation induced by Mach stem reflection

A series of experiments conducted by Chan has shown that while some shock waves may not be strong enough to induce detonation when they collide with an obstacle the resulting Mach stem will induce detonation if it collides with a subsequent obstruction. A series of numerical simulations, however, failed to demonstrate the expected results if either the Euler or laminar Navier-Stokes equations are solved. On the other hand, calculations using the Favre averaged Navier-Stokes equations with a k--F turbulence model are able to reproduce the experimental results, indicating that turbulent effects may play an important role in the ignition process. A detailed examination of the results shows that turbulence causes the formation of activated kernels in a similar process to that observed in deflagration-detonation transition. The simulations in this paper have been undertaken using a modern high resolution hydrocode and a reduced kinetics mechanism for hydrogen combustion. The paper describes the reduced mechanism, the solution methods employed in the hydrocode and discusses the results of the simulations and their implications. Received 28 October 1997 / Accepted 30 April 1998     

A compact shock-assisted free-piston driver for impulse facilities

A free-piston driver that employs entropy-raising shock processes with diaphragm rupture has been constructed, which promises significant theoretical advantages over isentropic compression. Results from a range of conditions with helium and argon driver gases are reported. Significant performance gains were achieved in some test cases. Heat losses are shown to have a strong effect on driver processes. Measurements compare well with predictions from a quasi-one-dimensional numerical code. Received 7 September 1996 / Accepted 5 October 1996     

On shock wave propagation in a branched channel with particles

The problem of wave propagation in a dust–air mixture inside a branched channel has not been studied widely in literature, even though this topic has many important applications especially in process safety (dust explosions). In this paper, a shock wave interaction with a cloud of solid particles, and the further behaviour of both gas and particulate phases were studied using numerical techniques. The geometry mimicked a real channel where bends or branches are common. Two numerical approaches were used: Eulerian–Eulerian and Eulerian–Lagrangian. Using Eulerian-Lagrangian simulation, it was possible to include the effects of particle–particle and particle–wall collisions in a realistic and direct manner. Results are mainly shown as snap-shots of particle positions during the simulations and statistics for the particle displacement. The results show that collisions significantly influence the process of particle cloud formation. PACS47.40.Nm, 02.60.Cb, 47.55.kf     

Modeling of Axisymmetric Two-phase Dilute Flows

This paper deals with the numerical treatment of Eulerian approach for dilute two-phase compressible flows (gas-particles mixtures) in axisymmetric configurations. For dilute flows, two classes of models depending on the dispersed phase volumetric fraction can be found. The volume occupied by the particles may be considered, that yields a model in which the gas phase and the dispersed phase equations are coupled through the void fraction and the source terms (Delhaye model). The void fraction effects can be neglected, that means the gas phase is a carrier phase for the particles (Ishii model). The mathematical nature of the two models is demonstrated from analysis of characteristic directions. For the Delhaye's model, a centered scheme is used to solve the system of partial differential equations, while an upwind TVD scheme is used for the Ishii's one. Then, it is shown that the problem of symmetry boundary conditions does not depend on the physical approach, as long as the flow remains dilute. However, a classical treatment for symmetry boundary conditions at the geometrical axis leads to large errors. A particular treatment for this boundary is presented: a new class of particles, described by a supplementary system of equations, is required.