The drag coefficient of a sphere placed in a non-stationary flow is studied experimentally over a wide range of Reynolds numbers in subsonic and supersonic flows. Experiments were conducted in a ...shock tube where the investigated balls were suspended, far from all the tube walls, on a very thin wire taken from a spider web. During each experiment, many shadowgraph photos were taken to enable an accurate construction of the sphere's trajectory. Based on the sphere's trajectory, its drag coefficient was evaluated. It was shown that a large difference exists between the sphere drag coefficient in steady and non-steady flows. In the investigated range of Reynolds numbers, the difference exceeds 50%. Based on the obtained results, a correlation for the non-stationary drag coefficient of a sphere is given. This correlation can be used safely in simulating two-phase flows composed of small spherical particles immersed in a gaseous medium.
The interaction of weak shock waves with porous barriers of different geometries and porosities is examined. Installing a barrier inside the shock tube test section will cause the development of the ...following wave pattern upon a head-on collision between the incident shock wave and the barrier: a reflected shock from the barrier and a transmitted shock propagating towards the shock tube end wall. Once the transmitted shock wave reaches the end wall it is reflected back towards the barrier. This is the beginning of multiple reflections between the barrier and the end wall. This full cycle of shock reflections/interactions resulting from the incident shock wave collision with the barrier can be studied in a single shock tube test. A one-dimensional (1D), inviscid flow model was proposed for simulating the flow resulting from the initial collision of the incident shock wave with the barrier. Fairly good agreement is found between experimental findings and simulations based on a 1D flow model. Based on obtained numerical and experimental findings an optimal design procedure for shock wave attenuator is suggested. The suggested attenuator may ensure the safety of the shelter’s ventilation systems.
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.
The present paper contains a detailed study of shock wave reflection from a wedge placed in various suspensions. In past works, the incident shock propagated initially in pure gas and the suspension ...started only at the leading edge of the deflecting wedge. However, in the present case the entire flow field is filled with a gas–dust suspension and the initial shock wave has steady-state structure relative to the shock front. In former studies the transmitted shock wave starts its propagation into the suspension and is reflected from the wedge at the same time. It is therefore obvious that the two unrelated processes of (2D) reflection and (1D) “transitional” relaxation occur simultaneously. In the present case the suspension behind the incident shock wave has reached steady state (i.e., it is a traveling wave) before the shock reaches the wedge leading edge.
The reflection process from the deflecting wedge is studied for different dust mass loadings and different dust-particle diameter. It is shown that when the dust loading is low and the dust particle diameter is small the wave reflection pattern is similar to that observed in a similar pure gas case. In addition, an equilibrium state is reached, behind the evolved waves, very quickly. On the other hand, when the dust loading is relatively high and/or the dust particle diameter is relatively large, the observed reflection wave pattern is very different from that seen in a similar pure gas case. In such cases it takes much longer time to reach an equilibrium state behind the reflecting waves. It is also shown that the dust presence significantly affects the (gas) pressure on the wedge surface. The higher the dust loading is, the higher the pressure on the wedge surface. Suspensions composed of solid particle of different size, but having the same dust mass loading, will approach the same equilibrium pressure. However, it will take longer time to reach an equilibrium state for suspensions having large diameter particles.
Quick and reliable shock wave attenuation is the goal of every protection facility and therefore it is not surprising that achieving this has drawn much attention during the past hundred years. ...Different options have been suggested; their usefulness varying from a reasonable protection to the opposite, a shock enhancement. An example for a suggestion for shock mitigation that turned out to be an enhancement of the impinging shock wave was the idea to cover a protected object with a foam layer. While the pressure behind the reflected shock wave from the foam frontal surface was smaller than that recorded in a similar reflection from a rigid wall 25, the pressure on the “protected” surface, attached to the foam's rear-surface, was significantly higher than that recorded in a similar reflection from a bare, rigid wall 11. In protecting humans and installations from destructive shock and/or blast waves the prime goal is to reduce the wave amplitude and the rate of pressure increase across the wave front. Both measures result in reducing the wave harmful effects. During the past six decades several approaches for achieving the desired protection have been offered in the open literature. We point out in this review that while some of the suggestions offered are practical, others are impractical. In our discussion we focus on recent schemes for shock/blast wave attenuation, characterized by the availability of reliable measurements (notably pressure and optical diagnostics) as well as high-resolution numerical simulations.
Proper design of protecting filters mitigates the effect of blast and shock waves and thereby makes such filters effective protection against both accidental and planned explosions. The main goal of ...the present study was to clarify the filter performance in reducing the loading on structures as well as reducing the strength of the transmitted shock. While most of the granular filters used for protection in the past were composed of sand or rock particles, in the present study the investigated granular filters were composed of small spherical particles. This was done in order to exclude the influence of the particle shape and to ease the numerical simulation of the filter performance. Moreover, in the simulations we neglected real effects such as particles movement and its rearrangement during the shock wave propagation and only discussion regarding the dependence of the granular filter performance on its length and composition is provided. Based on a comparison between experimental results and appropriate numerical simulations obtained for the pressure profiles inside and downstream of the filter it was found that the attenuation performance of the filter can be well predicted using a simple one-dimensional approach to the real, more complicated problems.
The propagation of stress waves through a chain of discs has been studied experimentally. Optically transparent 20-mm diameter discs, made of epoxy, were loaded dynamically by head-on collision with ...an incident planar shock wave. The loading was done in a vertical shock tube. The head-on collision between the punch-plate, placed on top of the chain of discs, and the incident shock wave resulted in a head-on reflected shock wave inducing behind it a fairly uniform step-wise pressure pulse having duration of about 6 ms. The recorded fringe patterns of the stress field, in the discs-chain, show that the input pressure pulse was broken into several oscillating cycles. The back and forth bouncing of stress waves gave rise to two different modes of the contact stress oscillations, which continued until the overall stress reaches equilibrium with the input conditions. The registered propagation velocity of the stress wave was significantly lower than the appropriate speed of sound in the material from which the discs were made.
The propagation of stress waves through a chain of discs has been studied experimentally in Part I (Glam et al. 1) and is completed here with numerical investigation using the standard package ...ABAQUS. A fair agreement is found between experimental findings and their simulations. Based on this agreement, parametric study of wave propagation through disc-chains was conducted. Specifically, effects associated with changes in the disc diameter, material density, stiffness/rigidity and the number of discs in the chain on the stressed chain have been studied. It was found that the propagation velocity of the evolved waves increases with improving contacts between the chain’s discs by exposing the chain to a static load before its dynamic loading. The wave- propagation velocity decreases with increase in the discs material density and it increases when its diameter increases. In case of a chain composed of small diameter discs and/or small material density, the transmitted stress wave is first strengthened and only at discs further down the chain it starts decaying. When checking the influence of the dynamic-loading duration it was found that long dynamic-load duration dissolves quickly into short pulses. It was also found that there is a ‘characteristic’ wave for a given chain. This wave propagates with minimal dispersion. Dynamic loads having shorter time duration than the ‘characteristic’ one experiences significant attenuation.
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