Heuristic model of the nonlinear Rayleigh-Taylor instability
- 1 February 1981
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 52 (2) , 655-663
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.328793
Abstract
A simple model is derived heuristically for the nonlinear evolution of the Rayleigh‐Taylor instability. Ordinary differential equations for time evolution of the spike and bubble amplitudes are found by constructing terms that smoothly connect the regimes of small and large amplitude behavior. The results apply to arbitrarily varying acceleration fields, including shock‐induced instabilities. The model predicts amplitudes accurate to better than 20% (velocity predictions are more accurate), in comparisons with published experimental data and two‐dimensional numerical simulations with hydrocodes. A limitation in the present model is that the density ratio of the two fluids should not be close to one for accurate modeling.This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
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