Incident shock Mach number effects on Richtmyer-Meshkov mixing in a heavy gas layer

Experiments were performed at the horizontal shock tube facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory to study the effect of incident shock Mach number (M) on the development of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability after a shock wave impulsively accelerates a varicose-perturbed, heavy-gas curtain. Three cases of incident shock strength were experimentally investigated: M = 1.21, 1.36, and 1.50. We discuss the state of the mixing and the mechanisms that drive the mixing at both large and small scales by examining the time evolution of 2D density fields derived from quantitative planar laser-induced fluorescence measurements. Several differences in qualitative flow features are identified as a result of Mach number variation, and differences in vortex interaction, observed using particle image velocimetry, play a critical role in the development of the flow field. Several quantities, including mixing layer width, mixing layer area, interface length, instantaneous mixing rate, the density self-correlation parameter, probability density functions of the density field, and mixing progress variables are examined as a function of time. These quantities are also examined versus time scaled with the convection velocity of the mixing layer. A higher incident Mach number yields greater mixing uniformity at a given downstream location, while a lower Mach number produces a greater amount of total mixing between the two gases, suggesting possible implications for optimization in applications with confined geometries. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.