A numerical study of bubble interactions in Rayleigh--Taylor instability for compressible fluids
- Department of Applied Mathematics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY (USA)
- Department of Applied Mathematics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ (USA)
- Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM (USA)
The late nonlinear and chaotic stage of Rayleigh--Taylor instability is characterized by the evolution of bubbles of the light fluid and spikes of the heavy fluid, each penetrating into the other phase. This paper is focused on the numerical study of bubble interactions and their effect on the statistical behavior and evolution of the bubble envelope. Compressible fluids described by the two-fluid Euler equations are considered and the front tracking method for numerical simulation of these equations is used. Two major phenomena are studied. One is the dynamics of the bubbles in a chaotic environment and the interaction among neighboring bubbles. Another one is the acceleration of the overall bubble envelope, which is a statistical consequence of the interactions of bubbles. The main result is a consistent analysis, at least in the approximately incompressible case of these two phenomena. The consistency encompasses the analysis of experiments, numerical simulation, simple theoretical models, and variation of parameters. Numerical simulation results that are in quantitative agreement with laboratory experiment for one-and-one-half (1 1/2) generations of bubble merger are presented. To the authors' knowledge, computations of this accuracy have not previously been obtained.
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-90ER25084
- OSTI ID:
- 6229200
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Fluids A; (USA), Vol. 2:11; ISSN 0899-8213
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
BUBBLES
COUPLING
TWO-PHASE FLOW
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
ACCELERATION
COMPRESSIBILITY
DYNAMICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
SHAPE
SIMULATION
VELOCITY
FLUID FLOW
INSTABILITY
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MECHANICS
640410* - Fluid Physics- General Fluid Dynamics