High-resolution Navier-Stokes simulations of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability with re-shock

Abstract

The interaction of a Mach 1.45 shock wave with a perturbed planar interface between sulphur hexafluoride and air is studied through high-resolution two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) shock-capturing adaptive mesh refinement simulations of multi-species Navier-Stokes equations. The sensitivities of time-dependent statistics on grid resolution for 2D and 3D simulations are evaluated to ensure the accuracy of the results. The numerical results are used to examine the differences between the development of 2D and 3D Richtmyer-Meshkov instability during two different stages: (1) initial growth of hydrodynamic instability from multi-mode perturbations after first shock and (2) transition to chaotic or turbulent state after re-shock. The effects of the Reynolds number on the mixing in 3D simulations are also studied through varying the transport coefficients.