4 research outputs found
Suppression of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability via special pairs of shocks and phase transitions
The classical Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is a hydrodynamic instability
characterizing the evolution of an interface following shock loading. In
contrast to other hydrodynamic instabilities such as Rayleigh-Taylor, it is
known for being unconditionally unstable: regardless of the direction of shock
passage, any deviations from a flat interface will be amplified. In this
article, we show that for negative Atwood numbers, there exist special
sequences of shocks which result in a nearly perfectly suppressed instability
growth. We demonstrate this principle computationally and experimentally with
stepped fliers and phase transition materials. A fascinating immediate
corollary is that in specific instances a phase transitioning material may
self-suppress RMI