Abstract
Abstract A gas breakdown was produced in the gases H2, N2 , He, Ar and Xe with a 100 MW ruby laser in a pressure chamber, the gas pressure being varied from 200 Torr to 10 atm. A lense with a focal length of 16 mm was used for focusing the laser beam. The blastwave was observed using the shadow method. High-speed pictures and streak pictures of the blastwave were taken with an image converter camera. The shape of the blastwave was approximately spherical. The position of the shock-front was determined as a function of time by streak pictures and compared with Sakurai's theory for H2 and N2 for Mach numbers M ≧ 2 and for Xe, Ar and He for M ≧ 4. From the normalization parameter it is possible to determine the energy of the blastwave for various gases as a function of the pressure of the gases. In the gases He and H2 pronounced rise of the blastwave energy was found with rising pressure. However, in the gases N2 , Xe and Ar there exists a maximum in the blastwave energy at a pressure of approximately 1 atm. A preliminary explanation for this behaviour is given.
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