Rayleigh-Taylor instability in compressible fluids

Technical Report · Thu Jun 15 04:00:00 EDT 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5416500· OSTI ID:5416500

Sturtevant, B. ^[1]

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1. California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (USA). Graduate Aeronautical Labs.

The interaction of shock waves with a contact surface between gases of different densities has been studied experimentally and theoretically. The basic mechanism for the instability of perturbations at the interface is baroclinic vorticity generation resulting from the misalignment of the pressure gradient of the shock and the density gradient of the interface. In the present study, the effects of interface density contrast and initial thickness, and incident wave strength on the development of the instability at the interface are investigated. The experiments were performed in a new vertical shock tube facility where the interaction of a shock wave with either a discontinuous interface, formed by a thin (0.5 {mu}m) plastic membrane, or a continuous interface, created by retracting a metal plate initially separating the two gases, was studied. Air was used on one side of the interface and either helium, carbon dioxide, refrigerant-22 or sulphur hexafluoride was used on the other side as the test gas. Experiments to study the time evolution of quasi-sinusoidal perturbations on a continuous interface have shown that the growth rates are reduced as the interface thickness is increased. Experiments were also performed to observe the schlieren visual thickness of plane discontinuous or continuous interfaces with random small-scale perturbations after interaction with the incident shock wave and its reverberations. 84 refs., 70 figs., 14 tabs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA); California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (USA). Graduate Aeronautical Labs.
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/DP
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 5416500
• Report Number(s): UCRL-21230; ON: DE90003027
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
COMPRESSED GASES
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELEMENTS
FLUID MECHANICS
FLUIDS
FLUORIDES
FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
GASES
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
HELIUM
HYDRODYNAMICS
INSTABILITY
INTERFACES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
NONMETALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PRESSURE MEASUREMENT
PROGRESS REPORT
RARE GASES
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SHOCK TUBES
SHOCK WAVES
SULFUR COMPOUNDS
SULFUR FLUORIDES
VORTICES