DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND CHARACTERIZATION OF PISTON DRIVEN SUPERSONIC SHOCK TUBE

Abstract

A shock tube is a device used to generate and study high-speed shock waves and the phenomena associated with them. This study presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a piston-driven shock tube, a compact and low-cost device designed to produce supersonic flow. The study uses a high-frequency Data Acquisition(DAQ) system comprised of NI X Series USB 6341. The electronics system measures pressure voltage from the transducer, amplifies it, and sends the output to the DAQ system for visualization in LabVIEW. The study utilizes ToF method with a 100 mm transducer spacing for the velocity measurement. A maximum shockwave mach number upto 1.723 was achieved using 0.072mm aluminum diaphragm at maximum burst pressure ratio of 14.239, characterized by x/l ratio. Schlieren imaging is used to visualize the shockwave and flow patterns behind it.