Rayleigh-Taylor and Richtmyer-Meshkov instabilities: A journey through scales
Zhou, Y; Williams, RJR; Ramaprabhu, P; et al.Groom, M; Thornber, B; Hillier, A; Mostert, W; Rollin, B; Powell, PD; Mahalov, A; Attal, N
Date: 17 February 2021
Article
Journal
Physica D: Nonlinear Phenomena
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Hydrodynamic instabilities such as Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instabilities usually appear
in conjunction with the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability and are found in many natural phenomenon and engineering applications. They frequently result in turbulent mixing, which has a major impact on the overall flow ...
Hydrodynamic instabilities such as Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) and Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instabilities usually appear
in conjunction with the Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instability and are found in many natural phenomenon and engineering applications. They frequently result in turbulent mixing, which has a major impact on the overall flow development
and other effective material properties. This can either be a desired outcome, an unwelcome side effect, or just an unavoidable consequence, but must in all cases be characterized in any model. The RT instability occurs at an interface
between different fluids, when the light fluid is accelerated into the heavy. The RM instability may be considered a
special case of the RT instability, when the acceleration provided is impulsive in nature such as that resulting from a
shock wave. In this pedagogical review, we provide an extensive survey of the applications and examples where such
instabilities play a central role. First, fundamental aspects of the instabilities are reviewed including the underlying
flow physics at different stages of development, followed by an overview of analytical models describing the linear,
nonlinear and fully turbulent stages. RT and RM instabilities pose special challenges to numerical modeling, due to
the requirement that the sharp interface separating the fluids be captured with fidelity. These challenges are discussed
at length here, followed by a summary of the significant progress in recent years in addressing them. Examples of
the pivotal roles played by the instabilities in applications are given in the context of solar prominences, ionospheric
flows in space, supernovae, inertial fusion and pulsed-power experiments, pulsed detonation engines and scramjets.
Progress in our understanding of special cases of RT/RM instabilities is reviewed, including the effects of material
strength, chemical reactions, magnetic fields, as well as the roles the instabilities play in ejecta formation and transport, and explosively expanding flows. The article is addressed to a broad audience, but with particular attention to
graduate students and researchers that are interested in the state-of-the-art in our understanding of the instabilities and
the unique issues they present in the applications in which they are prominent.
Mathematics and Statistics
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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