Triple Point Path Prediction of Diffracted Shock Waves Through Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulations.*

Explosions inside structures, civilian or military alike, are an alarming safety issue. Due to complex interactions between internal geometries and the blast wave, predicting the flow patterns with any sort of certainty is an insurmountable task. Triple points, Mach stems, reflected shocks, and diffracted shocks are some of the common complicated flow phenomena that may arise. With this work, we aim to explore the analogy of a blast wave and a diffracted shock wave by assessing the triple point (TP) path using numerical simulations. A diffracted shock may approximate a blast wave for large corner angles. This is done by using a double-bend duct geometry through Euler and turbulent simulations. The TP path is measured with the goal of sizing the height of the exit duct to allow the TP path to pass completely into the exit duct. The incident Mach number is varied along with the inlet height to generate a wide range of curves for comparison with the corner angle remaining constant. Due to our simulations lacking an incident charge mass, limited literature comparisons can be made. However, due to this, one major outcome will be a simple model that allows explosive researchers and shock diffraction researchers to address TP path outside of the existing models.