Experimental and numerical investigation of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability under re-shock conditions

Abstract

An experimental and numerical systematic study of the growth of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability-induced mixing following a re-shock is made, where the initial shock moves from the light fluid to the heavy one, over an incident Mach number range of 1.15–1.45. The evolution of the mixing zone following the re-shock is found to be independent of its amplitude at the time of the re-shock and to depend directly on the strength of the re-shock. A linear growth of the mixing zone with time following the passage of the re-shock and before the arrival of the reflected rarefaction wave is found. Moreover, when the mixing zone width is plotted as a function of the distance travelled, the growth slope is found to be independent of the re-shock strength. A comparison of the experimental results with direct numerical simulation calculations reveals that the linear growth rate of the mixing zone is the result of a bubble competition process.