Turbulent transport and mixing in the multimode narrowband Richtmyer-Meshkovinstability

• Published in: Physics of fluids (1994) Vol. 31; no. 9
• Main Authors: Thornber, B, Griffond, J, Bigdelou, P, Boureima, I, Ramaprabhu, P, Schilling, O, Williams, R J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 01.09.2019
• Subjects: Algorithms; Anisotropy; Compressibility; Computational fluid dynamics; Computer simulation; Density ratio; Direct numerical simulation; Energy dissipation; Fluid dynamics; Fluid flow; Interface stability; Kinetic energy; Large eddy simulation; Mathematical models; Narrowband; Numerical dissipation; Physics; Richtmeyer-Meshkov instability; Simulation; Stretching; Taylor instability; Transport equations; Vortices
• ISSN: 1070-6631; 1089-7666
• DOI: 10.1063/1.5111681

The mean momentum and heavy mass fraction, turbulent kinetic energy, and heavy massfraction variance fields, as well as the budgets of their transport equations are examinedseveral times during the evolution of a narrowband Richtmyer-Meshkov instability initiatedby a Mach 1.84 shock traversing a perturbed interface separating gases with a densityratio of 3. The results are computed using the “quarter scale” data from four algorithmspresented in the θ-group study of Thornber et al.[“Late-time growth rate, mixing, and anisotropy in the multimode narrowbandRichtmyer-Meshkov instability: The θ-group collaboration,” Phys. Fluids 29,105107 (2017)]. The present study is inspired by a previous similar study ofRayleigh-Taylor instability and mixing using direct numerical simulation data by Schillingand Mueschke [“Analysis of turbulent transport and mixing in transitional Rayleigh-Taylorunstable flow using direct numerical simulation data,” Phys. Fluids 22,105102 (2010)]. In addition to comparing the predictions of the data from four implicitlarge-eddy simulation codes, the budgets are used to quantify the relative importance ofthe terms in the transport equations, and the balance of the terms is employed to inferthe numerical dissipation. Terms arising from the compressibility of the flow areexamined, in particular the pressure-dilatation. The results are useful for validation oflarge-eddy simulation and Reynolds-averaged modeling of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability.