Magnetohydrodynamic effects in a shock-accelerated gas cylinder

This work presents two-dimensional (2D) simulations on a cylindrical Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). Three studies are presented in an effort to quantify and qualify the evolution of the MHD RMI by varying the magnetic field orientation, strength of the magnetic field, and strength of the shock wave driving the instability. The orientations considered herein are either parallel or perpendicular to the shock wave motion. The second study varies the magnetic fields between 100, 250, and 500 gauss (G), while the third study considers incident shock wave Mach numbers M = 1.2, M = 1.66, and M = 2.2. These parameter ranges were selected to be easily achievable in experiments while the interface perturbation was selected such that its evolution is independent of either the shock wave or magnetic field orientations independently. It was found that the MHD RMI evolution is dependent upon the magnetic field orientation relative to the shock transit direction as well as their individual magnitudes. This is because the mechanism of suppression, attributed to Alfven waves, is a function of the magnetic field strength and the orientation of the magnetic field, while the mechanism of RMI evolution, baroclinic vorticity deposition, is a function of the Mach number. Stronger magnetic fields were found to provide greater mixing suppression and have significant effects on RMI-like interface morphology. Finally, increasing the shock wave strength generated competing effects between higher RMI vorticity deposition and greater vorticity removal from the interface by faster Alfven waves.