ON GENERATION OF ULTRA-HIGH PRESSURE BY CONVERGING OF UNDERWATER SHOCK-WAVES

The characteristics of a new assembly for the shock consolidation of d ifficult-to-consolidate powders, such as inter-metallic compounds or c eramic materials, were investigated by both the experimental method an d numerical simulation method. The assembly consists of an explosive c ontainer, a water chamber, and a powder container. Once the explosive is detonated, a detonation wave occurs and propagates, and then imping es on the water surface of the water chamber. After that, there occurs immediately an underwater shock wave in the water chamber. The underw ater shock wave interacts with the wall of the chamber during its prop agation so that its strength is increased by the converging effect. We used the usual shadow graph system to photograph the interaction proc ess between detonation wave and water. We also used a Manganin piezore sistance gage to measure the converged pressure of the conical water c hamber. Finally, we numerically investigated in detail, the converging effects of the various conical water chambers on the underwater shock waves. The. experimental results and the correspondingly numerical re sults agree quite well with each other.