STEAM INDUCED SHOCKWAVE INTERACTION WITH A SUBMERGED PLATE CONFIGURED AT A RANGE OF INCLINATIONS FROM VERTICAL

Interaction of shock wave and the shear induced vortex across the steam-water layer has been vital in several transportation and chemical industrial processes. Experiments were conducted using a facility including a rectangular chamber, which housed a shock tube in it. Steam was injected into the tube to induce shock wave by bursting the Aluminum diaphragm disk and the shock wave surrounding by the steam-water shear layer induced vortex, exited the shock tube and struck the rectangular steel plate. PIV setup along with the pressure and acoustic emissions sensors were used to characterize the propagation and impingement of the shock wave on the plate as well as the behavior of the reflected shock wave and the vortex ring. In case of a vertical rectangular steel sheet stationed in front of the exit of the shock tube, the central part of the shock wave was found to interact with the central part of the vortex structure and the external part of the shock wave came into contact with the outer part of the vortex structure. Whereas in case of inclined sheet, the shockwave reflected from the sheet, came into collision with the rebound shockwave as well as with the lower portion of the vortex ring largely. However, with the further variation in the angle of inclination (i.e. 30o and larger) fromvertical axis, no further appreciable change was observed in the flow profile except the vortex ring interacted earlier with the rebounded shockwave in the lower region within the neighborhood of the plate than the interaction of the vortex ring with the rebounded shock wave in the upper region of the inclined plate. The pressure and acoustic emission measurements were symmetric with the vertical plate, however, the pressure data was asymmetric when the plate was inclined from vertical. When the angle of inclination changes to 30 degrees from the vertical, the flow becomes more asymmetric as the shockwave and the consequent vortices impinged on the surface of the plate much earlier than the 15 degrees’ inclination case.