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1962•The Physics of FluidsRequires access

Experimental Study of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Plasma

Hillman Dickinson, Winston H. Bostick, Joseph N. DiMarco, S. Koslov

Open publisher page 32 citations

Abstract

A clear experimental observation of Rayleigh-Taylor, flute-type instability in a high-temperature plasma expanding across a magnetic field has been made with time-delay, Kerr cell, sequence photography. The wavelength and growth rate of the instability are measured as a function of time for various values of external magnetic field and background gas pressure. With interface decelerations of about 109 m/sec2 the instability develops in 1–4 μsec with wavelengths of about 10−2 m. After 1–4 μsec the flutes grow with constant velocity.

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What this paper is about

A clear experimental observation of Rayleigh-Taylor, flute-type instability in a high-temperature plasma expanding across a magnetic field has been made with time-delay, Kerr cell, sequence photography. The wavelength and growth rate of the instability are measured as a function of time for various values of external magnetic field and background gas pressure. With interface decelerations of about 109 m/sec2 the instability develops in 1–4 μsec with wavelengths of about 10−2 m. After 1–4 μsec the flutes grow with constant velocity.

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Available abstract

A clear experimental observation of Rayleigh-Taylor, flute-type instability in a high-temperature plasma expanding across a magnetic field has been made with time-delay, Kerr cell, sequence photography. The wavelength and growth rate of the instability are measured as a function of time for various values of external magnetic field and background gas pressure. With interface decelerations of about 109 m/sec2 the instability develops in 1–4 μsec with wavelengths of about 10−2 m. After 1–4 μsec the flutes grow with constant velocity.

Key concepts: Physics, Instability, Rayleigh–Taylor instability, Two-stream instability, Plasma, Richtmyer–Meshkov instability, Wavelength, Magnetic field

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