Motion measurements of explosive shock waves based on an event camera

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Engineering
• Optics

Background:

• Accurate shock wave measurement is crucial for understanding explosive power and designing advanced warheads.
• Traditional optical sensors often lack the necessary high dynamic range and high-time resolution for detailed shock wave observation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate the use of event cameras for observing and measuring explosive shock waves.
• To develop a comprehensive procedure for accurately determining shock wave motion parameters using event camera data.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an event camera, known for its high dynamic range and low latency, to capture shock wave dynamics.
• Developed a plane lines-based calibration method leveraging the event camera's edge-sensitive nature.
• Estimated shock wave ellipse parameters from concise event data and derived geometric relationships to calculate motion parameters.

Main Results:

• The proposed method accurately measured shock wave motion parameters.
• Comparison with TNT explosion tests showed a relative measurement error as low as 0.33% and up to 7.58% compared to pressure sensors.
• The event camera approach demonstrated high effectiveness and rationality in shock wave analysis.

Conclusions:

• Event cameras provide a viable and effective tool for high-fidelity shock wave measurement.
• The developed comprehensive procedure enables accurate assessment of explosive shock wave dynamics.
• This technique offers a significant advancement in optical sensing for explosive event analysis.