Two-dimensional simulation of a shock-accelerated gas cylinder

The Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability (RMI) arises when a density gradient in a fluid (gas) is subjected to an impulsive acceleration (e.g., due to a shock wave passage). The evolution of RMI is non-linear and hydrodynamically complex and hence is a very good test problem to validate numerical codes. In. this paper, we present a two-dimensional numerical simulation of RMI-driven evolution of the flow produced by shock acceleration of a diffuse heavy gaseous cylinder embedded in lighter gas. The initial conditions employed in the simulation are a very close match to the initial conditions realised in a well-characterised experiment, facilitating a detailed quantitative comparison with experimental measurements, as well as with other simulations of the same experiment. Comparison of the late-time flow statistics between experiment and numerics elucidates the limitations inherently present in a two-dimensional simulation of a spatially three-dimensional flow, even if the large-scale flow structure is nominally two-dimensional.