Experimental study of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability induced by a Mach 3 shock wave

An experimental investigation of a shock-induced interfacial instability (Richtmyer-Meshkov instability) is undertaken in an effort to study temporal evolution of interfacial perturbations in the late stages of development. The experiments are performed in a vertical shock tube with a square cross-section. A membraneless interface is prepared by retracting a sinusoidally shaped metal plate initially separating carbon dioxide from air, with both gases initially at atmospheric pressure. With carbon dioxide above the plate, the Rayleigh-Taylor instability commences as the plate is retracted and the amplitude of the initial sinusoidal perturbation imposed on the interface begins to grow. The interface is accelerated by a strong shock wave (M = 3.08) while its shape is still sinusoidal and before the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability distorts it into the well known mushroom-like structures; its initial amplitude to wavelength ratio is large enough that the interface evolution enters its nonlinear stage very shortly after shock acceleration. The pre-shock evolution of the interface due to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability and the post-shock evolution of the interface due to the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability are visualized using planar Mie scattering. The pre-shock evolution of the interface is carried out in an independent set of experiments. The initial conditions for the Richtmyer-Meshkov experiment are determined from the pre-shock Rayleigh-Taylor growth. One image of the post-shock interface is obtained per experiment and image sequences, showing the post-shock evolution of the interface, are constructed from several experiments. The growth rate of the perturbation amplitude is measured and compared with two recent analytical models of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability.PACS: 52.35.Py, 52.35.Tc