Numerical Study of the Development of the Richtmyer–Meshkov Instability on the Contact Boundaries of Gas Layers

Hydrodynamic instabilities pose a serious challenge when optimizing devices designed to achieve high energy densities. This paper uses two algebraic models and the ILES methodology to investigate the development of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability from its origination to the transition to mixing the contacting gases. A two-layer gas system with a sinusoidally disturbed contact boundary is considered. The simulation is performed for three Atwood numbers (A = 0.2, 0.54, 0.82) at three Mach numbers (M = 1.3, 3, 5) of the shock wave incident on the contact boundary.