Visualization of shock and blast wave flows

Two visualization techniques and their application to studies of shock and blast wave flows are described. The first is an adaptation of the shadowgraph technique, and has been used to photograph the three-dimensional curved shocks produced by large scale explosions. The second technique involves the high speed photography of smoke tracers introduced into the air just before the passage of a shock or blast wave so that the trajectories of the gas particles within the wave can be accurately recorded and used to compute the particle velocity, density and pressure throughout the wave. This technique has been applied to one and two-dimensional flows in shock tubes, and to blast waves produced by large scale explosions.