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John Dewey, President and Research Director, DM&A
B.Sc., Ph.D. (London), Ernst Mach
Medal of Fraunhofer Gesellschaft
Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria
Research Interests:
Gas Dynamics: Diagnostic studies of shock and blast waves, specializing in the use of high-speed flow visualization techniques; shock wave reflection phenomena; explosive hazard evaluation.
John Dewey has actively researched the physical properties of blast waves for more than forty four years. With his students in the Shock Studies Laboratory at the University of Victoria he has specialized in the application of high speed flow visualization techniques for the study of shock and blast waves. The laboratory is equipped with a 7.5 cm x 25 cm cross-section shock tube in which shocks with strengths up to Mach 3 can be produced. These shocks are studied using shadowgraph, schlieren and particle tracer photography and time-resolved infinite-fringe holographic interferometry. The latter two techniques were developed in, and are unique to, this laboratory. Problems associated with the reflection of shocks from plane, curved and multi-facetted surfaces are of particular interest, and the experimental studies are augmented by numerical simulations.
Flow visualization techniques similar to those used in the laboratory are also used to study blast waves from chemical explosions. This work is carried out in conjunction with government and private research institutions in Canada, the United States, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and has resulted in the development of a unique database describing the physical properties of blast waves form a variety of explosive sources. DM&A's user-friendly AirBlast and EBlast expert systems rely on this database.
Other Interests:
John, and his wife Jean, live on a large property near to the University of Victoria where they grow all their own vegetables and a wide variety of fruits. John is a keen badminton and tennis player, a sailor, and a struggling golfer.