Transmission of elastic disturbances caused by air shock waves in a living body

¹ Biophysics Section, Research Institute of National Defence, Sundbyberg; and Department of Hygiene, University of Göteborg, Sweden

Anesthetized rabbits were exposed to air shock waves in a detonation chamber. The pressure wave patterns were recorded by means of a small lead zirconate titanate pressure transducer in the following parts of the body: at and under the skin of the side facing the charge, in the pleural sac and in the lung of that side, in the right and left ventricle of the heart, in the lung and in the pleural sac on the side opposite the charge, under the skin of that side, in the stomach, and in the skull between the bone and the brain. When the incident shock wave is propagated through the body the very steep shock front is converted so that the ascending limb of the pressure peak is much less steep, with a duration up to several hundred microseconds. The longest periods of pressure rise were found in the heart ventricles and stomach. The amplitude of the pressure curve generally diminishes as the wave passes through the body. The changes of the original shock wave are due probably in great part to the inhomogeneous structure of the animal body.

Note:
(With the Technical Assistance of A.-B. Sundqvist)