Interaction of rippled shock wave with flat fast-slow interface

The evolution of a flat air/sulfur-hexafluoride interface subjected to a rippled shock wave is investigated. Experimentally, the rippled shock wave is produced by diffracting a planar shock wave around solid cylinder(s), and the effects of the cylinder number and the spacing between cylinders on the interface evolution are considered. The flat interface is created by a soap film technique. The post-shock flow and the evolution of the shocked interface are captured by a schlieren technique combined with a high-speed video camera. Numerical simulations are performed to provide more details of flows. The wave patterns of a planar shock wave diffracting around one cylinder or two cylinders are studied. The shock stability problem is analytically discussed, and the effects of the spacing between cylinders on shock stability are highlighted. The relationship between the amplitudes of the rippled shock wave and the shocked interface is determined in the single cylinder case. Subsequently, the interface morphologies and growth rates under different cases are obtained. The results show that the shock-shock interactions caused by multiple cylinders have significant influence on the interface evolution. Finally, a modified impulsive theory is proposed to predict the perturbation growth when multiple solid cylinders are present. Published by AIP Publishing.