Numerical investigation of shock Mach number effects on Richtmyer–Meshkov instability in a heavy square bubble

Abstract

This study conducts a two-dimensional numerical investigation of incident shock Mach number effects on the Richtmyer–Meshkov (RM) instability after a shock wave impulsively drives a heavy square bubble. The square bubble is composed of SF6 gas, which is surrounded by nitrogen gas. Five different shock Mach numbers are considered: Ms=1.12, 1.22, 1.4, 1.7, and 2.1. Two-dimensional compressible Euler equations for two-component gas flows are simulated with a high-order modal discontinuous Galerkin solver. For validation, the numerical results are compared with the existing experimental results and are found to be in good agreement. The present results reveal that the incident shock Mach number is critical in the growth of RM instability in a heavy square bubble. The shock Mach number affects flow morphology significantly, resulting in complicated wave patterns, shock focusing, jet creation, bubble deformation, and vorticity generation. The convergent shape of the bubble causes shock focusing, which creates a local high-pressure zone and, as a result, an outward jet generation. It is found that the bubble deforms differently with increasing shock Mach number, and the different shock Mach numbers alter the distance between the shock focusing position and the downstream bubble interface. The effects of shock Mach numbers are investigated in depth through physical phenomena such as vorticity production, kinetic energy, and enstrophy. Finally, the shock Mach number impacts on the time-variations of the shock trajectories and interface structure are thoroughly investigated.