Simulation of shock wave interaction with porous compressible foam

Abstract A simple model is proposed for simulating the flow field developed in porous foam as a result of its head-on collision with a planar shock wave. In the model, the foam is simulated by a suspension composed of air and small, rigid spheres. The sphere's drag coefficient is increased beyond its regular level in order to account for the drag acting on the foam resulting from the air being forced to flow through the tortuous passages in the foam. The obtained numerical results are compared with appropriate experimental findings. Based on the obtained good agreement between experiments and simulations, a parametric study on the foam—shock-wave interaction process is conducted. It is shown that although the proposed dusty-gas model is very simple and might not simulate accurately all experimental findings, it certainly represents the main features and mechanism of the considered interaction process.