Experimental studies of a moveable wall to a shock wave

This paper explains the experiment conducted in order to reveal the response of a movable wall on a shock wave generated by ignition of a pyrotechnic gas generator dedicated for the automotive industry. This same kind of a pyrotechnic gas generator was used in each test. The test station consists on a pyrotechnic actuator in which the movable wall is expressed as a piston. The pyrotechnic actuator was specially design for such type of an investigation. Its design allows withstanding numerous tests without affecting the accuracy, and it is prepared to pressure measurement in three locations on the cylinder. However, here only the pressures measured in the vicinity of a cylinder bottom are under deliberation. This paper focusses on a shape of the piston influence on its movement characteristics (i.e. stroke velocity and acceleration). The experiment has shown that there is an influence of the shape of the movable wall on its movement characteristic. Furthermore, the experiment explained here constitutes a comparison of a piston velocity and acceleration with a flat and concave front surface. The dynamic pressure measurement have proven that the reflected shock wave increases its speed affecting the piston movement.