DEVELOPMENT OF SERIAL BIO-SHOCK TUBES AND THEIR APPLICATION

Objective To design and produce serial shock tubes and further examine their application to experimental studies on blast injury. Methods Bi o-medical engineering technique was used for the design and developmen t of the serial shock tubes. One thousand four hundred and fifty nine animals (757 rats, 105 guinea pigs, 335 rabbits, 240 dogs and 22 sheep ) were then used to test the wounding effects of the shock tubes. Resu lts Three types of bio-shock tubes, that is, large, medium-and small-s cale shock tubes were made in our laboratory. The large-scale shock tu be is 39 meters long; the inner diameter of the test section is 1 mete r; and the maximum overpressure in the driving section is 10.3 MPa. A negative pressure could be formed by means of the reflected rarefactiv e wave produced by the end plate. The medium-scale shock tube is 34.5 meters long; the maximum overpressure in the driving section is 22 MPa ; the test section is designed to be a knockdown, showing 5 basic type s with inner diameter of 77 to 600 millimeters, which could be used fo r researches on overpressure, explosive decompression, underwater expl osion, and so on. The small-scale shock tube is 0.5 meter long with th e maximum endured overpressure of 68.6 MPa. Results from animal experi ments showed that this set of shock tubes could induce various degrees of systemic or local blast injury in large or small animals. Conclusi ons This set of bio-shock tubes can approximately simulate typical exp losive wave produced by nuclear or charge explosion, and inflict vario us degrees of blast injury characterized by stability and reproducibil ity. Therefore, they can meet the needs of blast research on large and small animals.