Reduced re-shock growth in a convergent/divergent system: Effect of re-shock strength

The passage of a shock over a perturbed interface between 2 different materials can drive a hydrodynamic instability called the Richtmyer-Meshkov (RM) instability. RM instability creates or seeds hydrodynamic instabilities that will mix cold shell material into the hot DT fuel in an ignition capsule and may prevent ignition. Characteristic of this process is multiple shocks crossing converging interfaces. To mimic this situation, strong converging shocks were created, passed over an unstable interface, reflected by an inner cylinder, and then again shocked the interface. Analysis of the mix width at the unstable surface shows no additional growth, within experimental uncertainty, due to an initially perturbed surface and no dependence on re-shock strength. (authors)