Effects of Liquid Viscosity on Laser-Induced Shock Dynamics

We experimentally study the effects of viscosity on laser-induced shockwave in glycerol-water solution. A shockwave is generated through rapid expansion of plasma, which is induced by focusing a 6 ns pulse laser (532 nm) of energy fixed at 1.66 ± 0.22 mJ into 80, 90, 100 wt% glycerol-water solution. The shockwave propagation is recorded by an ultra-high-speed camera taken at 100 Mfps together with a pulse laser stroboscope. The photographs are used to determine the shock front position as a function of time, which allows for calculating the shock pressure according to the stiffened-gas type Rankine-Hugoniot relation. It turns out that the initial plasma pressure is reduced by having higher glycerol concentration (i.e., higher viscosity); therefore, wave steepening effect is deemphasized, resulting in a smaller decay rate.