Mortality in Small Animals Exposed in a Shock Tube to 'Sharp'-Rising Overpressures of 3-4 Msec Duration.

摘要

A total of 661 animals were exposed to 'sharp' -rising overpressures of 3-4 msec duration using a shock tube of novel design which produced a pressure pulse similar to that obtained with high explosives. The reflected shock overpressures associated with 50 per cent lethality were 29.0, 38.6, 35.2 and 35.6 psi for the mouse, rat, guinea pig and rabbit, respectively. Other observations included the time of death in mortally wounded animals and gross pathological lesions likely to contribute to mortality. Selected data from the literature bearing upon the influence of overpressure and pulse duration on lethality were reviewed. These included pulse durations ranging from less than 1 msec to 6-8 sec. The critical pulse duration, that duration shorter than which the overpressures required for mortality increases sharply, was noted to depend upon animal size and to be of the order of many hundreds of microseconds to very few milliseconds for 'smaller' animals and a few to many tens of milliseconds for 'larger' animals. (Author)