Harmonic growth of spherical Rayleigh-Taylor instability in weakly nonlinear regime

Journal Article · Sun Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4936096· OSTI ID:22489827

Liu, Wanhai ^[1]; Chen, Yulian ^[2]; Yu, Changping; Li, Xinliang ^[3]

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1. Research Center of Computational Physics, Mianyang Normal University, Mianyang 621000 (China)
2. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department, Lanzhou Resources and Environment Voc-Tech College, Lanzhou 730021 (China)
3. LHD, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190 (China)

Harmonic growth in classical Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) on a spherical interface is analytically investigated using the method of the parameter expansion up to the third order. Our results show that the amplitudes of the first four harmonics will recover those in planar RTI as the interface radius tends to infinity compared against the initial perturbation wavelength. The initial radius dramatically influences the harmonic development. The appearance of the second-order feedback to the initial unperturbed interface (i.e., the zeroth harmonic) makes the interface move towards the spherical center. For these four harmonics, the smaller the initial radius is, the faster they grow.

• OSTI ID: 22489827
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 22, Issue 11; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
AMPLITUDES
HARMONICS
INTERFACES
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PERTURBATION THEORY
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SPHERICAL CONFIGURATION
WAVELENGTHS