Quantitative theory of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability in three dimensions (Q1283834)

A material interface between two fluids of different densities accelerated by a shock wave is unstable, which is known as Richtmyer-Meshkow instability. Previous theoretical and numerical studies of this instability primarily focused on fluids in two dimensions. In this paper, the authors study the three-dimensional case. Three main results are presented: (1) the linear analysis of Richtmyer-Meshkov instability for both reflected and reflected rarefaction waves; (2) the derivation of nonlinear perturbation solution for unstable interface between incompressible fluids; (3) a quantitative nonlinear theory of the compressible Richtmyer-Meshkov instability from early to late times.