Redistribution of energy in a viscous heat-conductive medium during the interaction of a shock wave with a temperature layered plasma region

Abstract

Experimental data on the creation of ionization unstable gas discharge plasma with large-scaled and small-scaled ionisation strata are presented. The redistribution of kinetic and internal energy between a stratified energy source and the area behind a shock wave is numerically studied on the base of the system of Navier-Stokes equations. Generation of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities at many points is obtained which bend the shock wave front and, in some cases, completely destroy it (in density fields). The influence of heat conductivity on the obtained flow structures has been studied. For viscous heat conducting medium it was established the possibility to obtain local high energy zones behind the shock wave with values of energies several times higher than those for a non-stratified energy source with the same total energy. The values of energies in these zones were shown to be possibly controlled via the rarefaction parameter/temperature of a gas in the layers of a stratified energy source or by its geometry.