Hypervelocity Richtmyer-Meshkov instability

The Richtmyer-Meshkov instability is numerically investigated for strong shocks, i.e., for hypervelocity cases. To model the interaction of the flow with non-equilibrium chemical effects typical of high-enthalpy flows, the Lighthill-Freeman ideal dissociating gas model is employed. Richtmyer's linear theory and the impulse model are extended to include equilibrium dissociation chemistry. Numerical simulations of the compressible Euler equations indicate no period of linear growth even for amplitude to wavelength ratios as small as one percent. For large Atwood numbers, dissociation causes significant changes in density and temperature, but the change in growth of the perturbations is small. A Mach number scaling for strong shocks is presented which holds for frozen chemistry at high Mach numbers. A local analysis is used to determine the initial baroclinic circulation generation for interfaces corresponding to both positive and negative Atwood ratios. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.