The interface instability development induced by the bulk density perturbations in accelerated media

Abstract

The development of hydrodynamic instabilities has a significant impact on the operation of laser fusion systems. During radiation compression, the shells of a target are accelerated, resulting in the growth of perturbations at their interfaces. In this paper, we study the influence of density perturbations on the stability of the contact boundary during accelerated motion. The analysis is performed in a two-dimensional planar formulation using the linear approximation and assuming a weak spatial dependence on the temperature near the contact boundary. Due to the consideration of small time intervals, the phenomenon of heat conduction is not taken into account. The cases of acceleration of a medium described by the Mie–Grüneisen equation of state (EoS) into a vacuum and of acceleration of two contacting media, each described by the ideal plasma EoS, are considered. The time dependence of the amplitude of the boundary perturbation on time is obtained. The obtained values are in agreement with the results of numerical analysis. It is shown that the boundary curvature occurs independently of the acceleration direction. The theoretical results are compared with numerical results for laser fusion systems.