Dust suspensions accelerated by shock waves

The motion of dust suspensions accelerated by shock waves has been experimentally investigated in a vertical shock tube, in which a completely developed plane shock wave of moderate strength propagates into a homogeneously distributed dust suspension with a planar interface. Trajectories of the accelerated interfaces as well as transmitted and reflected shock waves are recorded by using a shadowgraph system with a Cranz-Schardin camera. Two kinds of particle samples, i.e. porous lycopodium particles 30 μm in diameter and corn starch particles with a mean diameter of 10 μm, are employed. The effects of shock wave strength and particle loading ratio are also examined. Experimental data are compared with theoretical results, and the agreement is good. Received: 7 October 1998/Accepted: 1 June 1999