Efficiency of the application of disperse materials to attenuate reflected shock waves

The authors study the normal reflection of weak shock waves from several types of dispersion materials: steel wool, foam rubber with different porosities, and their combinations. The Mach number of the incident shock waves was equal to $1.15$. The authors obtain the dependencies of the amplitude and the impulse of the reflected shock waves on the following parameters of the studied material: thickness, porosity, and the presence of the open pores. They show that the porous materials used in the experiments noticeably attenuate the reflected shock wave $($more than $50\%)$ and smooth its front.