Experimental Studies of Richtmyer–Meshkov Instability∗

Two novel experiments are reported which improve upon previous experimental studies of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in that very well controlled initial interfaces are obtained. The first is an incompressible experiment in which an impulsive acceleration is given to a system of two liquids by bouncing it off of a fixed spring. The second is a shock tube experiment in which a well controlled flat interface is obtained by flowing light and heavy gases from opposite ends of a vertical shock tube. Both of these experiments provide particularly well visualized images of the instability far into the nonlinear regime.