Shock wave distribution in an explosion of an explosive material with plastic filler

Abstract

This paper describes the measurement results for the shock wave propagation during an explosion of an explosive material with plastic filler. The detection is carried out with the help of high-speed analog and digital video cameras. The air shock wave is visualized by means of shadow photography in transmitted light in the zone of separation from expanding explosion products and using a background oriented schlieren method in the far zone. The optical measurements of the air shock wave propagation are used to estimate a maximum pressure in the compression zone at different sections and compared with the data obtained by the pressure gauges. The calculated pressure peaks are in good agreement with the measured ones. The background oriented schlieren method proves to be a useful tool easily introduced in conventional large-scale polygon experiments.