Study of the impulse wave discharged from the exit of a right-angle pipe bend

The impulse wave, which is usually generated by a shock wave discharge from the exit of a pipe, almost always leads to undesirable noise and vibration problems. The present study addresses experimental and computational work of the impulse wave discharged from the exit of two kinds of right-angle pipe bends, which are attached to the open end of a simple shock tube. The weak normal shock wave with its magnitude of Mach number from 1(.)02 to 1(.)20 is employed to obtain the impulse wave propagating outside the exit of the pipe bends. A Schlieren optical system is employed to visualize the impulse wave discharged from the exit of the pipe bends at an instant. The experimental data of the magnitude of the impulse wave and its propagation directivity are analyzed to characterize the impulse waves discharged from the exit of the pipe bends and compared with those discharged from a straight pipe. Computational analysis using the unsteady, inviscid, compressible equations is complemented to represent the major features of the impulse wave obtained from the shock tube experiments. Computational results well predict the experimented dynamic behaviors of the impulse wave. The results obtained show that a right-angle miter bend considerably reduces the magnitude of the impulse wave and its directivity toward to the pipe axis, compared with the straight pipe. It is believed that the right-angle miter bend pipe can play one role of a passive control against the impulse wave. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.