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Experimental investigation of two-dimensional Rayleigh–Taylor instability with controllable initial conditions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2025

Yu Liang Open the ORCID record for Yu Liang [Opens in a new window]  and
Xisheng Luo Open the ORCID record for Xisheng Luo [Opens in a new window]
Yu Liang*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, PR China School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China
Xisheng Luo*
Affiliation:
State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, PR China Advanced Propulsion Laboratory, Department of Modern Mechanics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, PR China
*
Corresponding authors: Yu Liang, liangyu@imech.ac.cn; Xisheng Luo, xluo@ustc.edu.cn
Corresponding authors: Yu Liang, liangyu@imech.ac.cn; Xisheng Luo, xluo@ustc.edu.cn
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Abstract

Experimental investigation of the Rayleigh–Taylor instability (RTI) and its dependence on initial conditions has been challenging, primarily due to the difficulty of creating a well-defined gaseous interface. To address this, a novel soap film technique was developed to create a discontinuous two-dimensional SF$_6$air interface with precisely controlled initial conditions. High-order modes were superimposed on a long-wavelength perturbation to study the influence of initial conditions on RTI evolution. Experiments conducted at Atwood numbers ranging from 0.26 to 0.66 revealed that bubble growth shows a weak dependence on both initial conditions and Atwood numbers, whereas spike growth is more influenced by these factors. Spike growth accelerates as the wavenumber of the imposed high-order modes decreases and/or the Atwood number increases. To quantify these effects, a variation on the previously developed potential flow model was applied, capturing the suppression of high-order modes and Atwood number dependence on RTI growth. In turbulent flow, the self-similar factors of bubbles and spikes exhibit minimal sensitivity to initial conditions. However, in relation to the Atwood number, the self-similar factors of bubbles (or spikes) demonstrate negligible (or significant) dependence. Comparisons with literature revealed that two-dimensional flows yield lower self-similar factors than three-dimensional flows. Furthermore, the discontinuity of the initial interface in this study, achieved through the soap film technique, results in faster spike growth compared with previous studies involving a diffusive initial interface. These findings provide critical insights into the nonlinear dynamics of RTI and underscore the importance of well-characterised initial conditions in experimental studies.

JFM classification

Convection: Buoyancy-driven instability Instability: Instability

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JFM Papers
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Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 1015 , 25 July 2025 , A10
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© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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