Shock Wave Interaction with a Solid Body Floating in the Air

A new shock tube system for the study of shock wave interaction with a solid body floating in the air has been developed. The system consists of a horizontally placed shock tube and a solid-body injecting device, which is mounted on the floor of the test section of the shock tube. A solid body initially placed on the shock tube floor was tossed into the air with the injecting device and then collided with a planar shock wave, which is generated by rapturing the diaphragm between the driver and the driven sections of the shock tube. By tuning the rapturing time of the diaphragm, we can make the shock wave interact with the solid body when it reaches the top of its trajectory almost at rest. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the present system, the shock-induced motion of a hexahedral solid body and the flow field around it were recorded using the shadowgraph technique coupled with a high-speed video camera. Representative results from the present experiments are reported in this paper.