Gas Gun
The Gas Gun facility, based at Imperial College London, is used to rapidly subject materials to extremes of pressure and temperature through high-precision impacts. With impact velocities ranging between 200 m/s to 1400 m/s, the gas gun can produce pressures in excess of 60 GPa (600,000 times atmosphere), and temperatures above 1000 K. Offering capabilities unique in the UK, the large diameter of the gas gun allows long shock loading duration (> 5 microseconds), simultaneous testing of multiple targets, and a heavy launch condition, which enables projectiles of 4 kg to be fired at 850 m/s, delivering up to 1.2MJ at the target.
The gas gun is specifically designed for “soft” recovery of dynamically loaded specimens, and is fitted with a 6 meter extended soft-capture tube to recover material debris following impact for microstructural and chemical analysis. The 2 meter diameter experiment tank can house bulky target and diagnostic systems, such as heating/cooling hardware or optics/X-ray positioning stages, allowing simultaneous complex measurements to be performed.
The Gas Gun has been used by the automobile and ballistics industries to test some of the most innovative materials designed.
Diagnostics
There are a wide range of cutting edge diagnostic tools available to measure the properties of a material during and post impact, including:
- Contact pins - determining time-of-arrival and impact velocity to a few nanoseconds precision.
- Embedded gauges - measuring stress and strain.
- High-speed imaging - up to 24 images spaced 5 ns apart (200,000,000 frames/s).
- Velocity Interferometry - measuring material velocity at up to 16 discrete points on a target.
- Line-Imaging VISAR - spatially-resolving the velocity of a target along a well-defined line.
The Gas Gun facility is located in the Hypersonics and High-Speed Impact Laboratory in the Department of Aeronautics. For more information on this facility and how you can access it through Imperial Consultants, please contact us.
Applying Shock Physics
Shock physics focuses on the understanding of what happens to matter under extreme conditions. The research can be applied in many ways, including analysing the effect of meteorite impacts on planets, spacecraft and satellites, understanding how tsunamis are formed and understanding the high pressure conditions that exist at the core of planets.
To find out more about Shock Physics and the research carried out at the Institute please visit their website.
The Institute of Shock Physics acknowledges funding of the Gas Gun Facility and the ISP by AWE plc, and Imperial College London.
