The isotope effect of gaseous hydrogen under shock compression

Abstract.

The shock compression method has been used to measure the Hugoniot data and shock temperature for gaseous hydrogen samples, covering the pressure range of 55-140 MPa and the temperature range of 3400-4500 K and with the initial conditions of P ₀ = 0.6 MPa, 1.2 MPa and T ₀ at room temperature. Spectral radiance histories emitted from shocked D ₂ and H ₂ + D ₂ (equimolar mixture) are monitored by a pyrometer system with seven wavelength channels. Theoretical calculations based on the Saha model with Debye-Hückel correction for the shock compression behavior of shocked gaseous samples are in good agreement with the measured Hugoniot data, but show slightly higher values for the shock temperature when comparing with experiments. An isotope effect relevant to these shocked hydrogen species has been found in the linear shock velocity vs particle velocity relation, in which the correlation factor between these hydrogen isotopes or hydrogen mixtures is simply of initial density dependence.