Experimental Determination of Shock Hugoniot for Water, Castor Oil, and Aqueous Solutions of Sodium Chloride, Sucrose and Gelatin

Abstract

Shock waves are indispensable tools for medical applications, and hence their interactions with human tissue become one of the most important basic research topics. In this paper, the determination of shock Hugoniot curves for liquids that can model human tissue, namely water, castor oil, and aqueous solutions of sodium chloride, sucrose and gelatin, at 10 and 20 weight percent are presented. Underwater shock waves were generated by ignition of 10 mg silver azide pellets and time variations of over-pressures were measured and simultaneously the shock speed was measured by the time of flight technique. Then shock Hugoniot curves were obtained, by assuming the Tait type equation of state, to relate the estimated density and measured pressure values. Results show in the cases of aqueous solutions that increasing amount of additives into water causes only a very minute decrease in the compressibility of the solution. This difference was more pronounced in the case of sodium chloride, less for gelatin, and almost none for sucrose aqueous solution.