A multiply-pulsed double-pass laser schlieren system for recording the movement of shocks and particle tracers within a shock tube

Abstract

A system has been developed for the photographic study of the flows produced by nonplanar shocks generated in a shock tube. An array of particle tracers is injected into the flow being examined and the movement of the tracers, as well as the shock fronts, is recorded using a double-pass schlieren system. A repetitively pulsed ruby laser, synchronized with a high-speed 16-mm framing camera, is used as a light source. Analysis of the photographic record yields the time and space variation of the physical properties of the observed flow field.