A Table-top Blast Driven Shock Tube

The prevalence of blast induced traumatic brain injury in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan has motivated laboratory scale experiments on biomedical effects of blast waves and studies of blast wave transmission properties of various materials in hopes of improving armor design to mitigate these injuries. This paper describes the design and performance of a table-top shock tube that is more convenient and widely accessible than traditional compression driven and blast driven shock tubes. The design is simple: it is an explosive driven shock tube employing a rifle primer which explodes when impacted by the firing pin. The firearm barrel acts as the shock tube, and the shock wave emerges from the muzzle. The small size of this shock tube can facilitate localized application of a blast wave to a subject, tissue, or material under test, since how blast waves reach the brain, how blast waves damage tissue, and what materials best attenuate blast waves are unanswered questions. Thus it can be used to help answer some important questions, such as how blast waves reach the brain, how blast waves damage tissue, and what materials best attenuate blast waves.