THE PRODUCTION AND STUDY OF HIGH SPEED SHOCK WAVES IN A MAGNETIC ANNULAR SHOCK TUBE. Research Report 59

Technical Report · Wed Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1959

OSTI ID:4178171

Patrick, R M

A magnetic annular shock tube was used to produce magnetically driven shock waves with very high velocities. Experiments were carried out with this device with two magnetic field configurations ahead of the shock front. The first configuration had a magnetic field ahead of the shock front in the direction of motion of the shock. In the second configuation the magnetic field ahead of the shock had its principal component in the plane of the shock front and a small component in the direction of motion of the shock. The continuum radiation emitted by the shock-heated plasma was messured with photomultipliers. The use of probes to measuare the change in the local magnetic field in the shock front was investigated. With the second configuration shock velocities in excess of 4 x 1O/sup 7/ cm/sec were measured in hydrogen. For these high speed shock waves, a shock thickness was obtained from measured rise times of the emitted visible radiation. These shock thicknesses are thinner than the mean free path in the shock-heated plasma, an observation which agrees with a theoretical prediction. (auth)

• Research Organization: Avco Corp. Avco-Everett Research Lab., Everett, Mass.
• NSA Number: NSA-14-008819
• OSTI ID: 4178171
• Report Number(s): AFOSR-TN-59-845; AD-225292
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CONFIGURATION
EMISSION
HYDROGEN
LIGHT
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MEASURED VALUES
MOTION
PHOTOMULTIPLIERS
PHYSICS
PLASMA
PRODUCTION
RADIATIONS
SHOCK WAVES
THICKNESS
TUBES
VELOCITY