Spatio-temporal pulse propagation during highly-resolved onset of Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities

Fuente: arXiv
Enregistré dans:
Détails bibliographiques
Auteurs principaux: Joshi, Bhavna, Sengupta, Aditi, Ajanif, Yassin, Lestandi, Lucas
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
Sujets:
Accès en ligne:
Tags: Ajouter un tag
Pas de tags, Soyez le premier à ajouter un tag!
_version_ 1866915283597262848
author Joshi, Bhavna
Sengupta, Aditi
Ajanif, Yassin
Lestandi, Lucas
author_facet Joshi, Bhavna
Sengupta, Aditi
Ajanif, Yassin
Lestandi, Lucas
contents The present study explores the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) and Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor instability (KHRTI) with highly-resolved direct numerical simulations of two setups which consider air at different temperatures (or densities) and/or velocities in two halves of three-dimensional cuboidal domains. The compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a novel parallel algorithm which does not involve overlapping points at sub-domain boundaries. The pressure disturbance field is compared during onset of RTI and KHRTI and corresponding convection- and advection-dominated mechanisms are highlighted by instantaneous features, spectra, and proper orthogonal decomposition. The relative contributions of pressure, kinetic energy and rotational energy to the overall energy budget is explored for both instabilities, revealing acoustic trigger to be the incipient mechanism for both RTI and KHRTI. The nonlinear, spatio-temporal nature of the instability is further explored by application of a transport equation for enstrophy of compressible flows. This provides insights into the similarities and differences between the onset mechanisms of RTI and KHRTI, serving as a benchmark data set for shear and buoyancy-driven instabilities across diverse applications in geophysics, nuclear energy and atmospheric fluid dynamics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_07433
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spatio-temporal pulse propagation during highly-resolved onset of Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities
Joshi, Bhavna
Sengupta, Aditi
Ajanif, Yassin
Lestandi, Lucas
Fluid Dynamics
The present study explores the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) and Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor instability (KHRTI) with highly-resolved direct numerical simulations of two setups which consider air at different temperatures (or densities) and/or velocities in two halves of three-dimensional cuboidal domains. The compressible Navier-Stokes equations are solved using a novel parallel algorithm which does not involve overlapping points at sub-domain boundaries. The pressure disturbance field is compared during onset of RTI and KHRTI and corresponding convection- and advection-dominated mechanisms are highlighted by instantaneous features, spectra, and proper orthogonal decomposition. The relative contributions of pressure, kinetic energy and rotational energy to the overall energy budget is explored for both instabilities, revealing acoustic trigger to be the incipient mechanism for both RTI and KHRTI. The nonlinear, spatio-temporal nature of the instability is further explored by application of a transport equation for enstrophy of compressible flows. This provides insights into the similarities and differences between the onset mechanisms of RTI and KHRTI, serving as a benchmark data set for shear and buoyancy-driven instabilities across diverse applications in geophysics, nuclear energy and atmospheric fluid dynamics.
title Spatio-temporal pulse propagation during highly-resolved onset of Rayleigh-Taylor and Kelvin-Helmholtz Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.07433