A Shock-Tube-Based Facility for Impact Testing

Many dynamic testing techniques use gas guns as a pressure generator. The pressure generated from the gas guns is often of low velocity and low energy and has a relatively random or short duration of a uniform pressure level. This kind of pressure is not well defined and cannot be converted into other application conditions. With aims at improving experimental capability and expanding the research horizon, a shock tube was designed and constructed and innovative applications were explored. With proper adjustments of gas components and gas pressures, well-defined pressure sources could be produced. With appropriate designs of a force transformer, various testing parameters required for different, dynamic experiments could also be simulated. In this paper, a piston-like impactor was inserted into the shock tube as a pressure transformer. The feasibility of using the shock-tube-based facility for impact testing was demonstrated.