Test Stand for Shock Compression of Gas-Impregnated Solids

Electrically launched flyer plates are being used to produce shockwaves in gas-impregnated solids. A test stand has been constructed to deliver capacitively stored energy to a copper foil load. When the copper foil vaporizes and expands, a flyer plate is launched and collides with a gas-impregnated target. An RLC circuit was designed to minimize the effects of the underdamped circuit and variable impedance of the vaporizing copper foil while delivering the energy needed to accelerate the flyer plate. Velocity data will be collected with a framing camera and correlated with the mass of the flyer plate and the charge voltage. These data make it possible to determine the velocity in future experiments when the target is blocking the line of sight of the framing camera.