Experiments on the interaction of a pair of cylindrical weak blast waves in air

Abstract

This paper reports the results of experiments and computations on the interaction of a pair of cylindrical blast waves in air. The waves were generated by exploding wires, and both symmetrical and unsymmetrical interactions were observed. The experimental data includes schlieren photographs of the wave interactions, their radii, shock Mach number and pressure versus time, as well as various cross plots and data on the shock regular/irregular interaction transition condition. The flow fields were computed with the help of the “Total Variation Diminishing” (TVD) method, and appear to represent the experimental results reasonably well. Some attention is also given to the blast scaling laws of the type discussed by Sakurai (1965) and Oshima (1960).