Impact of the volume of rooms on shock wave propagation within a multi-chamber system

International audienceThe behavior of a shock wave generated by a hemispherical gaseous charge and propagating within a confined multi-chamber system is analyzed through the evolution of some of the shock parameters (maximum overpressure and positive impulse). Moreover, the impact of a variation in the volume of the rooms on the pressure history inside the building is also studied. Several small-scale experiments have been carried out using an adjustable model representative of a pyrotech-nic workshop. The experimental results show that the pressure histories are very complex. Yet, using a global approach, we were able to link the evolution of the arrival time of the shock wave within the building with the reference obtained in free field. New parameters were developed to best fit the experimental maximal overpressure in the cells and in the corridor leading to two predictive laws used to estimate the maximal overpressure in the model