The shock tube facility has a 5.5″ x 5.5″ internal area and can shock wave strengths up to Mach 2.75 into atmospheric pressure air. It has three main sections; the driver, the driven, and the test sections. The driver section is made of round tube with an 8″ internal diameter and 1 inch wall thickness. The driven and test sections are made of square tube with a wall thickness of 0.75 inches and an internal cross section of 5.5″ by 5.5″. The test section contains window ports that allow the visualization of the fluid dynamics occurring within the tube. It is made of several modular sections that can be rearranged to allow visualization of the fluid dynamics at different times after shock acceleration. The tube has a closed end, trapping the shock pressure within the tube, and creating a reflected shock wave that can be used to accelerate a fluid field for a second time. The end wall has a sapphire window port that allows a laser to illuminate the fluid flow.
Equipment
Multiphase Detonation Tube
The multi-phase detonation facility is designed to investigate detonations in liquid droplet and solid particulate fuels and gaseous oxidizer. The tube itself has a cross section of 2.25″ by 2.25″ (57mm x 57mm) and length of approx 3m and is designed to be capable of handling detonations of a variety of fuel-ox mixtures and initial pressures/temperatures. Its construction consists of an ignition/fill section, 500mm detonation-to-deflagration accelerator section, 1.5m of development section to measure the wave, pizeoelectric transducers to measure pressure/velocity profiles, two test sections with optical through access, and a hydraulically clamped diaphragm loader and expansion/blowdown tank to contain the detonation. The facility has full optical access to directly image the multiphase flow field and reacting fuel droplets and particles via the various method in use in the lab (Laser-illuminated imagery, LIF,PLIF, PDPA particle and droplet sizer, Schlieren, shadowgraphy, Pyrometry, etc.), as well as pressure and temperature diagnostics.