EXPERIMENTAL MEASUREMENTS IN A DUSTY-GAS SHOCK-TUBE

A dusty-gas shock tube has been used to experimentally investigate the structure of a normal shock wave in steady one-dimensional dusty-gas flows. The investigation includes: direct and indirect measurements of the pressure, gas- and particulate-phase velocities and concentrations in the initial equilibrium region before the shock arrival; measurements of the changes in these properties across the shock front; measurements of these properties in the final equilibrium region; and measurements of the variations of these properties as a function of time through the relaxation zone that separates these initial and final equilibrium regions. Results of these experiments show that the thermodynamic variables follow the trends predicted by two-phase theory, but generally reach equilibrium in a shorter relaxation time than that predicted by computations using the standard drag coefficient.