Opportunity: Mixing and Control of Benchtop Laser Shock Waves

Multiple nanosecond laser pulses, fired simultaneously, can be used to study the mixing of micro-shock waves at laboratory scales. This project involves an experiment designed to study this microshock mixing as a function of the laser energy and distance between shock origins via multi-flash schlieren imaging and high-fidelity microphones and/or novel PVDF gauges. This work will support the growing body of research demonstrating pulsed laser systems and applicable optical techniques as potential surrogates for much larger detonation experiments.