1400 N. Bishop, Rolla, MO 65409-0330

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Rachel Bauer, a doctoral candidate in explosives engineering, will defend their dissertation titled “Shock Wave and Vortex Ring Dynamics from Explosively Driven Shock Tunnels.” Their advisor, Dr. Catherine Johnson, is a Robert H. Quenon Associate Professor of Mining and Explosives Engineering. The dissertation abstract is provided below.

Blast and shock tubes are frequently used to create shock waves to study their effects and impacts on structures, humans, and personal protective equipment. These tubes are also found in other industries including wind tunnels for aerodynamic testing, jet engines for propulsion research, spacecraft reentry simulations, and even in industrial applications such as material testing and high-velocity impact studies. Despite their widespread use, there is no standard design, with variations in geometry, size, and energy sources seen worldwide. Current research using blast and shock tubes only evaluates the peak pressure of the shock wave produced and does not consider the effects of changing the size or geometry of the tube. This dissertation examines the shock wave and vortex ring produced from explosively driven blast tubes. A series of studies were conducted to evaluate blast tubes of different sizes and geometries to determine their effect on the resulting shock wave and vortex ring. High-speed imaging, statistical analysis, hydrodynamic simulation, and pressure measurements were all used to analyze the shock waves and vortex rings. It was found that that smaller tubes produce longer shock wave durations and higher energy levels. Furthermore, the square tubes demonstrated a more predictable scaling behavior, suggesting that their performance may be more straightforward to model compared to other geometries. The investigation also found that as the size of the tubes increases, the shock wave exhibits a negative phase, aligning more closely with the behavior observed in open-field tests. Notably, the findings showed that it is the duration of the shock wave, rather than the peak pressure, that primarily influences changes in impulse. This dissertation demonstrates the effect of changing tube parameters on the resulting shock wave and vortex ring which is beneficial to all future studies which use shock and blast tubes.

  • Steve Bauer

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