Underwater implosion of glass spheres

Underwater implosion experiments were conducted with thin-wall glass spheres to determine the influence that structural failure has on the pressure pulse. Four experiments were conducted with glass spheres having an outside diameter of 7.62 cm, thickness of 0.762 mm, and an estimated buckling pressure of 7.57 MPa. The experiments were performed in a pressure vessel at a hydrostatic pressure of 6.996 MPa. The average peak pressure of the implosion pressure pulse was 26.1 MPa, measured at a radial distance of 10.16 cm from the sphere center. A computational fluid structure interaction model was developed to assess how the failure rate of the glass structure influences the pressure time history. The model employed a specified glass failure sequence that is uniform in time and space. It was found that for the conditions of the test, a glass failure rate of 275 m/s provided a reasonable representation of the test data. The test data and the model results show that the failure time history of the structure has a significant influence on an implosion pressure pulse. Computational prediction of an implosion pressure pulse needs to include the failure time history of the structure; otherwise it will overpredict the pressure time history.