High-resolution simulations and modeling of reshocked single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov instability: Comparison to experimental data and to amplitude growth model predictions

The reshocked single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is simulated in two spatial dimensions using the fifthand ninth-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory shock-capturing method with uniform spatial resolution of 256 points per initial perturbation wavelength. The initial conditions and computational domain are modeled after the single-mode, Mach 1.21 air acetone /SF6 shock tube experiment of Collins and Jacobs J. Fluid Mech. 464, 113 2002 . The simulation densities are shown to be in very good agreement with the corrected experimental planar laser-induced fluorescence images at selected times before reshock of the evolving interface. Analytical, semianalytical, and phenomenological linear and nonlinear, impulsive, perturbation, and potential flow models for single-mode Richtmyer-Meshkov unstable perturbation growth are summarized. The simulation amplitudes are shown to be in very good agreement with the experimental data and with the predictions of linear amplitude growth models for small times, and with those of nonlinear amplitude growth models at later times up to the time at which the driver-based expansion in the experiment but not present in the simulations or models expands the layer before reshock. The qualitative and quantitative differences between the fifthand ninth-order simulation results are discussed. Using a local and global quantitative metric, the prediction of the Zhang and Sohn Phys. Fluids 9, 1106 1997 nonlinear Padé model is shown to be in best overall agreement with the simulation amplitudes before reshock. The sensitivity of the amplitude growth model predictions to the initial growth rate from linear instability theory, the post-shock Atwood number and amplitude, and the velocity jump due to the passage of the shock through the interface is also investigated numerically. © 2007 American Institute of Physics. DOI: 10.1063/1.2472508