Title: Computational study of shock tube using baffle to enhance the performance for biomedical application

Authors: Zeyaullah Ansari; Koushik Das; Ramesh Babu Pallekonda

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Meghalaya-793003, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Meghalaya, Meghalaya-793003, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Warangal, Telagana-506004, India

Abstract: A shock tube is a pressure vessel commonly used to study the flow dynamics of a shock wave. The present work focuses on enhancing shock tube performance for needleless drug delivery by incorporating a baffle. A two-dimensional axisymmetric shock tube with a converged opening of a baffle is modelled using ANSYS Fluent 2020 to improve the reflected shock pressure. A detailed parametric study of the system has been performed using different geometrical and physical parameters. The proposed modification in the shock tube improves performance with reduced initial driver pressure to obtain a particular microjet velocity. It is desirable to use a baffle with higher inlet and lower outlet openings placed closest to the end wall of the driven section for better performance. The helium outperforms nitrogen as a driver gas to yield 2.17 times higher reflected pressure and enables a reduction of 66% in the initial driver pressure.

Keywords: shock tube; baffle; shock wave; needle-less drug delivery; compressible flow.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2025.148786

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2025 Vol.25 No.5, pp.305 - 318

Received: 27 Feb 2024
Accepted: 25 Nov 2024
Published online: 24 Sep 2025 *

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