Investigation of the Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities

Technical Report · Wed Feb 09 00:00:00 EST 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/836721· OSTI ID:836721

Bonazza, Riccardo; Anderson, Mark; Smith, Leslie

The present research program is centered on the experimental and numerical study of two instabilities that develop at the interface between two different fluids when the interface experiences an impulsive or a constant acceleration. The instabilities, called the Richtmyer-Meshkov and Rayleigh-Taylor instability, respectively, adversely affect target implosion in experiments aimed at the achievement of nuclear fusion by inertial confinement by causing the nuclear fuel contained in a target and the shell material to mix, leading to contamination of the fuel, yield reduction or no ignition at all. The laboratory experiments summarized in this report include shock tube experiments to study a shock-accelerated bubble and a shock-accelerated 2-D sinusoidal interface; and experiments based on the use of magnetorheological fluids for the study of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. Computational experiments based on the shock tube experimental conditions are also reported.

• Research Organization: University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG52-03NA00061
• OSTI ID: 836721
• Report Number(s): DOE/FG/00061-2; TRN: US0701798
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
BUBBLES
CONTAMINATION
IGNITION
IMPLOSIONS
INERTIAL CONFINEMENT
NUCLEAR FUELS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SHOCK TUBES
TARGETS
Richtmyer-Meshkov instability
Rayleigh-Taylor instability
interfacial instabilities
hydrodynamic instabilities
inertial confinement fusion