Experimental Study of Turbulent Mixing in the Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability

Abstract

An interface that separates two fluids of different densities is unstable to acceleration by a shock wave. In this interaction, called the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) [1, 2], vorticity is baroclinically deposited on interfacial perturbations. The vorticity drives the growth of perturbation amplitudes and can lead to turbulentmixing between the two fluids. This instability is relevant to inertial confinement fusion, where mixing between different layers of the capsule can degrade performance by cooling the central hot-spot or diluting the fuel with ablator material.