Observation of Self-Similar Behavior of the 3D, Nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Journal Article · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 2005 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.265001· OSTI ID:20771641

Sadot, O ^[1]; NRCN, Beer Sheva 84190 ^[2]; Smalyuk, V A; Delettrez, J A; Sangster, T C; Goncharov, V N ^[1]; Meyerhofer, D D; Betti, R ^[1]; Shvarts, D ^[3]

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1. Laboratory for Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, 250 East River Road, Rochester, New York 14623 (United States)
2. Israel
3. 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, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 26 Vol. 95; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
BUBBLES
DISTURBANCES
FOILS
LASER-PRODUCED PLASMA
LASERS
MODULATION
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PLASMA PRODUCTION
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY