Investigation of Velocity and Attenuation of Shock and Acoustic Waves at Low Pressure, Development of Sensitive Total Radiation Detectors, Negative Point Corona Discharge and Exploding Wires

摘要

The five major topics discussed in this report are:(1) Speed of Shock Waves as a Function of Ambient Pressure, (2) Exploding Wires, (3) A New Method of Multiple High Speed Photography, (4) Negative Point to Plane Corona Studies, (5) Total Radiation Detection.nResults are given for the velocity of the shock wave under various conditions of ambient pressure and ambient temperature and for various energies put into the exploding wire which was the source of the shock waves. Information is also given on particle velocities obtained by measuring the particles from exploding aluminum wires at various distances, and this gives an average velocity of about 1000 meters/second although the initial velocity must be much greater. Information is also given on the variation of the velocity of the shock wave as a function of the distance from the source. The information on exploding wires consists of current wave forms and smear photographs for many different conditions. Curves are given for many combinations of varying the following parameters:capacitor banks, voltages, lengths of wire; diameter of wire, materials, shapes, and pressures. The current measurements were made by specially constructed shunts similar to those designed at the National Bureau of Standards. The oscilloscope was photographed by using the Polaroid camera attachment and many traces of these photographs are included in the report. Also included are many traces obtained by rephotographing the original Polaroid photographs. Information is also given on results of explosions at k microns of mercury.