Efficiency of the Application of Disperse Materials to Attenuate Reflected Shock Waves

Abstract

The authors study the normal reflection of weak shock waves from several types of dispersion materials: steel wool, foam rubber with different porosities, and their combinations. The Mach number of the incident shock waves was equal to 1.15. The authors obtain the dependences of the amplitude and the impulse of the reflected shock waves on the following parameters of the studied material: thickness, porosity, and the presence of the open pores. They show that the porous materials used in the experiments noticeably attenuate the reflected shock wave (more than 50%) and smooth its front.