November 23-25, 2025, Houston, Texas
Contributed Session

Flow Instability: Richtmyer-Meshkov and Pulsating Flows

12:50 pm – 3:00 pm, Tuesday November 25 Session Z23 George R. Brown Convention Center, 361CF
Chair:
Kevin Ferguson, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Topics:

Experimental study of the Richtmyer-Meshkov instability coupled with a chemical reaction

1:29 pm – 1:42 pm
Presenter: Riccardo Bonazza (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
Authors: Tanner Diring (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Eri Amezcua (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Jason Oakley (University of Wisconsin - Madison), David Rothamer (University of Wisconsin - Madison)

The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) at a chemically-reactive interface is studied experimentally in a vertical, downward-firing shock tube of large (25X25 cm) square internal cross section.  The initial condition is prepared in two steps:  first a flat, gravitationally stable, horizontal interface between helium (seeded with 6% acetone) and argon is formed.  Then a shear layer is established by flowing an Ar/Kr/O2 mixture horizontally, immediately above the flat interface, and acetone-seeded He immediately below it.  The proportions of Ar/Kr/O2 (52%/8%/40%) are selected so that the mixture density is the same as argon’s and the acetone/oxygen equivalence ratio is 0.5.  The Atwood number between the acetone-seeded helium and argon is 0.69.  The interface is impulsively accelerated by a M=2.0 shock wave and the acetone/oxygen mixture within the interface ignites upon reshock.  Results from observation of complete chemiluminescence, OH chemiluminescence, and acetone planar laser-induced fluorescence are presented here.

Funding acknowledgement

Work supported by US DOE grant DE-NA0004098

PRESENTATIONS (10)