Shock wave characteristics in a conical water explosion shock tube under cylindrical charge condition

A conical shock tube is a kind of underwater explosive devices which uses small conical explosive charge to form high intensity shock pressure. Theoretically, the shock wave pressure in the conical shock tube is the same as that generated by a virtual spherical explosive charge in free field water. However, considering the effect of practical factors, the characteristics of shock wave in the actual device and the theoretical device are different to some extent. In order to investigate the shock wave characteristics in the conical water explosion shock tube under a cylindrical charge condition, and to obtain the variation rules of the peak pressure value, the specific impulse and the energy flux density, a series of numerical calculations with different cone angles and different quality of cylindrical charges were conducted. The reliability of the simulation methods was verified by comparing with the published experimental data. Through the analysis of the pressure data obtained by the validated simulation method, it is found that the shock wave in the tube follows the same scaling law as it is in the free field underwater explosion. The constants k and n of the empirical expressions for peak pressure, the impulse and the energy flux density for the shock wave in shock tube are obtained by data fitting. Furthermore, the relationships among the coefficient k, index n and cone angle α were deduced, and the result shows that the coefficients k have well linear relationship with constructed angle coefficient β, and the indexes n can be quantitatively expressed by cone angle α. Regarding the free field as a special case with a cone angle of 360°, it’s constants k and n also conform to the obtained relationships. It is also found that the secondary pulsation pressure period shows an anomalous change rule with explosive mass, which can be well explained by the significant increasement of the equivalent hydrostatic pressure depth. The ratio between the secondary impulse pressure peak and initial pressure peak is bigger than that in free field while the ratio between the secondary impulse pressure’s impulse to the initial pressure impulse is almost the same. These results can provide support for the application of conical shock tubes.