The late-time development of the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability

Measurements have been made of the growth by the Richtmyer–Meshkov instability of nominally single-scale perturbations on an air/sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) interface in a large shock tube. An approximately sinusoidal shape is given to the interface by a wire mesh which supports a polymeric membrane separating the air from the SF6. A single shock wave incident on the interface induces motion by the baroclinic mechanism of vorticity generation. The visual thickness delta of the interface is measured from schlieren photographs obtained singly in each run and in high-speed motion pictures. Data are presented for delta at times considerably larger than previously reported, and they are tested for self-similarity including independence of initial conditions. Four different initial amplitude/wavelength combinations at one incident shock strength are used to determine the scaling of the data. It is found that the growth rate decreases rapidly with time, ddelta/dt[proportional]t–p (i.e., delta[proportional]t1–p), where 0.67<~p<~0.74 and that a small dependence on the initial wavelength lambda0 persists to large time. The larger value of the power law exponent agrees with the result of the late-time-decay similarity law of Huang and Leonard [Phys. Fluids 6, 3765–3775 (1994)]. The influence of the wire mesh and membrane on the mixing process is assessed