Observation of Self-Similar Behavior of the 3D, Nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
- Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)
- Israel
- NRCN, Beer Sheva 84190 (Israel)
The Rayleigh-Taylor unstable growth of laser-seeded, 3D broadband perturbations was experimentally measured in the laser-accelerated, planar plastic foils. The first experimental observation showing the self-similar behavior of the bubble size and amplitude distributions under ablative conditions is presented. In the nonlinear regime, the modulation {sigma}{sub rms} grows as {alpha}{sub {sigma}}gt{sup 2}, where g is the foil acceleration, t is the time, and {alpha}{sub {sigma}} is constant. The number of bubbles evolves as N(t){proportional_to}({omega}t{radical}(g)+C){sup -4} and the average size evolves as <{lambda}>(t){proportional_to}{omega}{sup 2}gt{sup 2}, where C is a constant and {omega}=0.83{+-}0.1 is the measured scaled bubble-merging rate.
- OSTI ID:
- 20771641
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 95, Issue 26; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.265001; (c) 2005 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Density ratio dependence of Rayleigh-Taylor mixing for sustained and impulsive acceleration histories
Power Laws and Similarity of Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov Mixing Fronts at All Density Ratios