Numerical Simulation of a Shock Tube for Bio-dynamics Study

Abstract A bio-shock tube with non-lethal pressure levels can be used to study blast-induced primary injuries. In this paper, a finite element shock tube model was developed to simulate the shock wave and gas flow in a specific bio-shock tube. The behaviors of the gases in the tube were described with an equation of state using the multi-material arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (MMALE) formulation. The FE model-predicted temporal and spatial distributions of pressures were in reasonable agreement with those obtained experimentally. The characteristics of shock wave, unloading wave and rarefaction wave were well captured by this numerical model.