TWO-DIMENSIONAL BLAST-WAVE-DRIVEN RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY: EXPERIMENT AND SIMULATION

Journal Article · Fri May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2009 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/696/1/749; COUNTRY OF INPUT: INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA)· OSTI ID:21296166

Kuranz, C C; Drake, R P; Harding, E C; Grosskopf, M J ^[1]; Robey, H F; Remington, B A; Edwards, M J; Miles, A R; Perry, T S ^[2]; Blue, B E ^[3]; Plewa, T ^[4]; Hearn, N C ^[5]; Knauer, J P ^[6]; Arnett, D ^[7]; Leibrandt, D R ^[8]

---

1. University of Michigan, MI (United States)
2. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, P.O. Box 5508, L-487, Livermore, CA 94550 (United States)
3. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
4. Department of Scientific Computing, Florida State University, Dirac Science Library Tallahassee, FL 32306-4120 (United States)
5. ASC/Alliances Center for Astrophysical Thermonuclear Flashes, University of Chicago, IL (United States)
6. Laboratory of Laser Energetics, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY (United States)
7. Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 (United States)
8. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 (United States)

This paper shows results from experiments diagnosing the development of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability with two-dimensional initial conditions at an embedded, decelerating interface. Experiments are performed at the Omega Laser and use {approx}5 kJ of energy to create a planar blast wave in a dense, plastic layer that is followed by a lower density foam layer. The single-mode interface has a wavelength of 50 {mu}m and amplitude of 2.5 {mu}m. Some targets are supplemented with additional modes. The interface is shocked then decelerated by the foam layer. This initially produces the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability followed and then dominated by Rayleigh-Taylor growth that quickly evolves into the nonlinear regime. The experimental conditions are scaled to be hydrodynamically similar to SN1987A in order to study the instabilities that are believed to occur at the He/H interface during the blast-wave-driven explosion phase of the star. Simulations of the experiment were performed using the FLASH hydrodynamics code.

• OSTI ID: 21296166
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 696, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/696/1/749; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
EXPLOSIONS
HYDRODYNAMICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SUPERNOVAE