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Title: Direct simulation Monte Carlo investigation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability

Journal Article · · Physical Review Fluids
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Engineering Sciences Center
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Computing Research Center

In this paper, the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) is investigated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method of molecular gas dynamics. Here, fully resolved two-dimensional DSMC RTI simulations are performed to quantify the growth of flat and single-mode perturbed interfaces between two atmospheric-pressure monatomic gases as a function of the Atwood number and the gravitational acceleration. The DSMC simulations reproduce many qualitative features of the growth of the mixing layer and are in reasonable quantitative agreement with theoretical and empirical models in the linear, nonlinear, and self-similar regimes. In some of the simulations at late times, the instability enters the self-similar regime, in agreement with experimental observations. Finally, for the conditions simulated, diffusion can influence the initial instability growth significantly.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1339256
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1313260
Report Number(s):
SAND2016-1868J; 619643; TRN: US1701676
Journal Information:
Physical Review Fluids, Vol. 1, Issue 4; ISSN 2469-990X
Publisher:
APSCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 44 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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  • Kadau, Kai; Barber, John L.; Germann, Timothy C.
  • Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Vol. 368, Issue 1916 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2009.0218
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Non-equilibrium effects on flow past a circular cylinder in the slip and early transition regime journal December 2018
Molecular-dynamics simulation of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability on a Li-H 2 interface at extreme compressing conditions journal June 2018
Investigation of unsteady, hypersonic, laminar separated flows over a double cone geometry using a kinetic approach journal April 2018
Kinetic modeling of unsteady hypersonic flows over a tick geometry journal May 2019
Direct simulation Monte Carlo on petaflop supercomputers and beyond journal August 2019
Quantification of thermally-driven flows in microsystems using Boltzmann equation in deterministic and stochastic contexts journal August 2019
Numerical investigation of nanoporous evaporation using direct simulation Monte Carlo journal November 2019
Quantification of thermally-driven flows in microsystems using Boltzmann equation in deterministic and stochastic contexts text January 2019