Studies on gasdynamic behaviors of combustible gas in a shock tube

The present paper studies theoretically and experimentally chemical effects on reflected-shock flowfields in combustible gas. A diaphragmless shock tube is constructed for use in experimental studies of gasdynamic behaviors of reactive flowfields. Performance tests for the present shock-tube apparatus show that it has good capability to produce shock waves. It is used to conduct experiments for reflected-shock waves in H2-O2-Ar mixture. Pressure histories are measured on the end wall and on the side wall of the shock tube. A computational procedure is developed for reactive gasdynamic calculations by combining a gasdynamic finite-difference scheme with a chemical kinetic simulation code. This was used to conduct calculations for reflected-shock flowfields in H2-O2-Ar mixture. Computations are carried out to compare with the experimental results. The agreement between experimental and computational pressure histories is qualitatively and quantitatively very good.