Advection versus diffusion in Richtmyer-Meshkov mixing

The Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability is one of the most severe degradation mechanisms for inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and mitigating it has been a priority for the global ICF effort. In this Letter, the instability's ability to atomically mix is linked to its background decay of residu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics letters. A 2022-04, Vol.430, p.127976, Article 127976
Main Author: Doss, Forrest W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS
Reynolds-averaged turbulence models
Richtmyer-Meskov instability
Telegraph equation
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Summary:The Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability is one of the most severe degradation mechanisms for inertial confinement fusion (ICF), and mitigating it has been a priority for the global ICF effort. In this Letter, the instability's ability to atomically mix is linked to its background decay of residual turbulent energy. We show how recently derived inequalities from the mathematical theory of PDEs constrain the evolution. A model RM process at leading order may diffusively mix or retain imprints of its initial structures indefinitely, depending on initial conditions, and there exists a theoretical range of zero-mixing for certain values of parameters. The results may apply to other systems resembling scalar transport in decaying turbulence. •We model the shocked-interface Richtmyer-Meshkov instability as a telegraph equation.•Modern PDE inequalities imply constraints on the induced mixing of the model.•The model is compared with experiments, simulation, and alternative theory.•A regime where material mixing is strongly suppressed is predicted.
ISSN:0375-9601
1873-2429
DOI:10.1016/j.physleta.2022.127976