What is it about?
This paper highlighted a new general model problem for buoyancy-driven (BD) mixing which is shown—experimentally, computationally, and theoretically—to contain the basic physics of the traditionally used Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) mixing model that is ubiquitous in all transport processes. A first-of-its kind new model problem, BD mixing, has been introduced that shows RT mixing is a subset of BD mixing based on group theory properties. This new model problem (BD mixing) combines experimental methods—planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF), photographic full-field view (FFV) method, and particle image velocimetry (PIV)—with computational fluid dynamics analyses to explore the flow dynamics in BD mixing.
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Why is it important?
Transport processes in which instability mechanisms (Rayleigh-Taylor (RT), Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH), Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM)) occur have traditionally been addressed by using different testing facilities to isolate the instability mechanism of interest. For the first time, an innovative model problem (BD mixing) has been introduced that allows the instability mechanisms to be combined in one system or testing facility. The impact of BD mixing is the unification of the basic hydrodynamic instability mechanisms—RT, KH, and RM instabilities in one physical model—that drive our atmosphere, oceans, Earth’s mantle convection, and collapse of stars in our universe.
Perspectives
The publication of the experimental, computational, and theoretical research addressing BD mixing was a great pleasure and adventure to write, and represents a substantial contribution to the field. The uniqueness of BD mixing is that, for the first time there is a model that allows the interaction of interfacial mixing (stretching and folding) and instability mechanisms (RT, KH, RM) to be manifested in one model. What also makes this article appealing, is the wide range of application of BD mixing—which extends from Microgravity Science conducted on the International Space Station (ISS) addressing biological systems, to ground-based laboratory processes that address transport phenomena during the growth of single crystals for technological applications that lie at the heart of modern communication devices such as our cell phones.
Walter Duval
NASA Glenn Research Center
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mixing driven by transient buoyancy flows.II. Flow dynamics, AIP Advances, August 2021, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0037823.
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