Simple and inexpensive interferometry of shock wave developments from pulsed high-current discharge

1089-7623

AIP Digital Archive

Physics

Electrical Engineering, Measurement and Control Technology

Interferometer measurements are extremely informative in shock wave studies allowing direct evaluations of the gas density. The primary goal of the work presented is to build a laser interferometer that meets the requirements of the highest possible simplicity, economy, convenience, and ease of construction. In our experiments, we used a low average power (10 mW) He–Ne laser without complication, expense, and environmental section. The He–Ne laser interferometer with the Michelson arrangement was used to measure the line-averaged gas densities of shock waves. Temporal and spatial measurements of the density were performed for shock wave developments from high-current pulse discharges. The shock wave propagates in the radial direction of the discharge channel with supersonic speed. The shock velocity, however, decreased from 2–0.5 km/s with the distance of the shock propagation. The width of the high density region, that is in the vicinity of the shock front was compressed from 3.5 to 1.8 mm according to the time variation of the discharge current. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.

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