A numerical study of bubble interactions in Rayleigh--Taylor instability for compressible fluids

Journal Article · Thu Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1990 · Physics of Fluids A; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.857679· OSTI ID:6229200

Glimm, J ^[1]; Li, X L ^[2]; Menikoff, R; Sharp, D H ^[3]; Zhang, Q ^[1]

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1. Department of Applied Mathematics, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY (USA)
2. Department of Applied Mathematics, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ (USA)
3. 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), Journal Name: Physics of Fluids A; (USA) Vol. 2:11; ISSN 0899-8213; ISSN PFADE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640410* -- Fluid Physics-- General Fluid Dynamics
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ACCELERATION
BUBBLES
COMPRESSIBILITY
COUPLING
DYNAMICS
FLUID FLOW
INSTABILITY
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MECHANICS
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY
SHAPE
SIMULATION
TWO-PHASE FLOW
VELOCITY