Experimental study of instability growth patterns of a shock- accelerated, thin fluid layer

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6605439

Jacobs, J W ^[1]; Jenkins, D G; Klein, D L; Benjamin, R F ^[2]

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1. Arizona Univ., Tucson, AZ (United States). Dept. of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

We have discovered a remarkable set of flow patterns induced by shock acceleration of two nearby, perturbed interfaces. Using planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), we observe three distinct patterns in the nonlinear evolution of Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instabilities associated with this flow. We observe two patterns dominated by vortex pairs and one pattern showing no vortex pairing (until late time) for initial conditions that are indistinguishable by measurement techniques available for our work. The flow is initiated by spatially periodic perturbations imposed on a gas curtain'' interacting with a planar shock wave. These flow patterns are not predictable nor controllable in our experiments. Our measurements appear to be the first observations of a shock-driven flow exhibiting characteristics of bifurcation. Results were recently published, and more detailed results are forthcoming. We present here a brief description of the experiment, summary of results, and a vortex-based explanation of the phenomena.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6605439
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-93-1059; CONF-9303126--2; ON: DE93010741
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
665000 -- Physics of Condensed Matter-- (1992-)
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
FLUID FLOW
INSTABILITY
LAYERS
MIXING
SHOCK TUBES
SHOCK WAVES
TURBULENT FLOW