Shock compression through different media: air, water and their interface*

As the shock wave passes through air and/or water media, various physical and/or chemical changes occurs in the media which eventually alters the equation of state of the media leading to changes in the fluid-structure interaction as well as the impulse transmitted to that of the structure. This presentation summarizes the authors work in the area (held over multiple years) in which molecular dynamics study of shock compression has been conducted for water, air (dry air consisting of 78.08% of Nitrogen, 20.95% of Oxygen and 0.97% of Carbon-dioxide as well as moisture laden air and air at high altitudes) as well as air-water interface. For the case of water, phase transition is observed from liquid water to ice VII “like” structure (rotational diffusion studies indicate the presence of plastic crystal phase at the liquid water-ice VII boundary region). For the case of air, new chemical species are observed to form as a result of shock induced chemical reactions. In the case of air-water interface, interesting observations will be presented for Richtmeyer-Meshkov instability as well as chemical reactions observed at the interface.

Research funded by ONR-Global