Cylindrical Shock Waves from Exploding Wires

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Abstract
A simple technique has been found for rendering visible the shock wave formed by an exploding wire after the shock has separated from the luminous contact surface. A small, plane mirror is placed just behind the wire so as to be perpendicular to the axis of the optical system. Thus the reflected image of the wire explosion coincides with the disturbance itself when seen through the slit by the camera lens. Rotating mirror pictures taken under these conditions show very clear outlines of the parabolic shock wave as it propagates ahead of the luminous contact surface. The separation of the shock and contact surface is complete by about one μsec. Beyond this time the shock is clearly nonluminous and ordinarily would not be visible. Comparison of shock trajectories with predictions from the similarity solutions for strong shock waves obtained by S. C. Lin may be interpreted as showing that the shock is receiving additional energy while traversing the early part of its path. After this phase both shock and contact surface accurately obey a parabolic law over intervals of several microseconds.
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