On the motion established by a constant energy explosion followed by an expanding piston

Abstract

The paper examines the influence of a piston motion on the gaseous motion set up by an explosion. This is a problem of relevance not only to explosions in which the remnants of the original explosive are present, but also by the application of the hypersonic similarity law, to the steady flow at high Mach number past a blunt-nosed object with increasing thickness. In the vicinity of the piston perturbation theory breaks down and matching techniques have to be employed. A solution is given in terms of a small parameter which essentially depends on the ratio of the speed of the piston to that of the shock. Some particular cases are discussed in which the piston motion plays a similar role to the counter pressure of the undisturbed gas.