An investigation of the reflected shock interaction process in a shock tube.

Following the first interaction between the reflected shock from the end wall and the advancing contact surface in a shock tube, cold gas has been observed at the end plate at a time much earlier than that predicted on the basis of simple shock tube theory. Investigation of the nature of this cold gas has been made by an infra-red absorption technique. The driver gas hydrogen is tagged with a small quantity of infrared active gas, and shocks are driven with this gas mixture into an infrared inactive test gas. The time of arrival of driver gas at the end plate is measured from the absorption records and calculations based on a modification of the shock bifurcation model agree substantially with these experimental results. Use is also made of an infrared absorption/emission technique to determine the temperature of the infrared source.