Shock Transfer and Shock-Initiated Detonation in a Dual Pulse Detonation Engine/Crossover System

Abstract

An experimental investigation was carried out to study the propagation of a shock wave through a crossover tube for the purpose of causing shock-initiated detonation. A pulse detonation engine was used as a driver source to propagate a shock wave through a crossover tube into a second, adjacent detonation tube (that is, driven). Results showed a transferred shock wave achieved shock-initiated detonation, and for specific crossover tube geometries, there was a maximum effective crossover tube length for which the event was possible. This maximum effective length was strongly correlated to the strength of the transferred shock. Initiation performance in the driven detonation tube declined when the incident shock strength decreased below . Introducing a bend to the end of the crossover tube increased the driven detonation tube initiation performance by enhancing the strength of the transferred planar shock wave by an average of 20%. A numerical investigation on shock wave planar attenuation in a crossover tube corroborated the experimental results.