Dense particle cloud dispersion by a shock wave

A dense particle flow is generated by the interaction of a shock wave with an initially stationary packed granular bed. High-speed particle dispersion research is motivated by the energy release enhancement of explosives containing solid particles. The initial packed granular bed is produced by compressing loose powder into a wafer with a particle volume fraction of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\phi _\mathrm{p} = 0.48$$\end{document}. The wafer is positioned inside the shock tube, uniformly filling the entire cross-section. This results in a clean experiment where no flow obstructing support structures are present. Through high-speed shadowgraph imaging and pressure measurements along the length of the channel, detailed information about the particle shock interaction was obtained. Due to the limited strength of the incident shock wave, no transmitted shock wave is produced. The initial solid-like response of the particle wafer acceleration forms a series of compression waves that eventually coalesce to form a shock wave. Breakup is initiated along the periphery of the wafer as the result of shear that forms due to the fixed boundary condition. Particle breakup is initiated by local failure sites that result in the formation of particle jets that extend ahead of the accelerating, largely intact, wafer core. In a circular tube, the failure sites are uniformly distributed along the wafer circumference. In a square channel, the failure sites, and the subsequent particle jets, initially form at the corners due to the enhanced shear. The wafer breakup subsequently spreads to the edges forming a highly non-uniform particle cloud.