Experimental impulse measurements for detonations were compared with analytical predictions and with numerical simulations. The similarity solution for the Taylor wave and dimensional analyses have been used to predict the measured impulse if the thermochemical properties of the mixture are known. This model requires some nondimensional constants which are obtained by integrating the appropriate region of experimental and numerical pressure traces. Scott Jackson Detonation Tube Structural Response Previous work at Caltech on mechanical response of detonation tubes has emphasized the importance of flexural waves and the possibility of resonant excitation of flexural waves by detonations or shock waves. Laboratory measurements, analytic solutions of elastic equations, and numerical solutions to finite-element models have all demonstrated that strains up to 4 times higher than the static values can be produced .
Preliminary studies involve measurements of crack propagation speeds and crack tip stability.
Finite-element simulations of flexural wave excitation by traveling loads have been carried out to determine the growth of the wave amplitude as a function of distance and wave speed. The image shown above is a link to a movie showing the propagation of flexural waves. This data base has a number of unique features, and is meant to be a community project that can be used by all and maintained as an archive. Computational tools for ZND and CV with detailed chemical reaction models are available. Shock tube data, mechanism validation tests, CJ and ZND computations for H2, C2H4, C3H8.