The influence of the Mach number of shock waves on turbulent mixing growth at an interface of gases

Abstract

The results of our experimental investigation of the turbulent mixing occurring at a Richtmayer–Meshkov instability driven by a shock wave (SW) in gases at different Mach numbers (M) ranging from ≈1.4 to ≈9 are presented in this paper. The experiments were performed by using an air shock tube with a channel section of 40×40 mm2. The SW passed from ‘light’ to ‘heavy’ gases. Air (helium) was used as a ‘light’ gas and Xe, CO2 and Ar were used as ‘heavy’ gases. The gases were initially separated by a thin (≈1 μm) polymer film, which was failed after the passing of the SW. A film of the flow was made using a high-speed camera by the Schlieren method.