Waves Propagation in Saturated Rigid Porous Media - Numerical Simulation and Comparison with Experiments

The head-on collision of planar shock waves with rigid porous materials was investigated experimentally and numerically. The experiments were conducted in a 75 mm x 75 mm shock tube. The rigid porous samples were made of silicon carbide (10 and 20 ppi) and alumina (30 and 40 ppi). The length of the models were in the range 40–100 mm. The shock wave Mach number range was 1.2–1.7. The pressure histories at various locations along the shock tube side-wall and at the end-wall were recorded in each experiment. The numerical study consisted of developing a 1-D TVD-based computer code capable of solving the macroscopic governing equations. The agreement between the experimental results and the numerical predictions was very good. Based on this agreement a parametric investigation using the computer code was carried out.