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Title: Growth rate and the cutoff wavelength of the Darrieus-Landau instability in laser ablation

Journal Article · · Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print)
; ; ;  [1]
  1. Department of Physics, Umeaa University, 901 87 Umeaa (Sweden)

The main characteristics of the linear Darrieus-Landau instability in the laser ablation flow are investigated. The dispersion relation of the instability is found numerically as a solution to an eigenvalue stability problem, taking into account the continuous structure of the flow. The results are compared to the classical Darrieus-Landau instability of a usual slow flame. The difference between the two cases is due to the specific features of laser ablation: sonic velocities of hot plasma and strong temperature dependence of thermal conduction. It is demonstrated that the Darrieus-Landau instability in laser ablation is much stronger than in the classical case. In particular, the maximum growth rate in the case of laser ablation is about three times larger than that for slow flames. The characteristic length scale of the Darrieus-Landau instability in the ablation flow is comparable to the total distance from the ablation zone to the critical zone of laser light absorption. The possibility of experimental observations of the Darrieus-Landau instability in laser ablation is discussed.

OSTI ID:
21294427
Journal Information:
Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics (Print), Vol. 80, Issue 4; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.046403; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1539-3755
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English