A numerical study of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability driven by cylindrical shocks

As an incident shock wave hits a material interface between two fluids of different densities, the interface becomes unstable. Small disturbances at the interface start to grow. This interfacial instability is known as a Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability. It plays an important role in the studies of inertial confinement fusion and supernova. The majority of studies of the RM instability were in plane geometry - namely, plane shocks in Cartesian coordinates. We present a systematic numerical study of the RM instability driven by cylindrical shocks for both the imploding and exploding cases. The imploding (exploding) case refers to a cylindrical shock colliding with the material interface from the outside in (inside out). The phenomenon of reshock caused by the waves reflected from the origin is also studied. A qualitative understanding of this system has been achieved. Detailed studies of the growth rate of the fingers at the unstable interface are presented. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.