Simulations and Analysis of the Reshocked Inclined Interface Richtmyer–Meshkov Instability for Linear and Nonlinear Interface Perturbations

Abstract

A computational study of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability (RMI) is presented for an inclined interface perturbation in support of experiments being performed at the Texas A&M shock tube facility. The study is comprised of 2D, viscous, diffusive, compressible simulations performed using the arbitrary Lagrange Eulerian code, ARES, developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. These simulations were performed to late times after reshock with two initial interface perturbations, in the linear and nonlinear regimes each, prescribed by the interface inclination angle. The interaction of the interface with the reshock wave produced a complex 2D set of compressible wave interactions including expansion waves, which also interacted with the interface. Distinct differences in the interface growth rates prior to reshock were found in previous work. The current work provides in-depth analysis of the vorticity and enstrophy fields to elucidate the physics of reshock for the inclined interface RMI. After reshock, the two cases exhibit some similarities in integral measurements despite their disparate initial conditions but also show different vorticity decay trends, power law decay for the nonlinear and linear decay for the linear perturbation case.