Published August 2002 | Version v1
Journal article

Effect of viscosity on destabilization of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability by thermal conductivity in a fluid

  • 1. Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871 (Japan)
  • 2. Department of Applied Physics, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Ohkubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo 169-8555 (Japan)
  • 3. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568 (Japan)

Description

The effect of viscosity on the destabilization of the Rayleigh-Taylor (RT) instability by thermal conductivity has been investigated as an extension of the Ryutov analysis [D. D. Ryutov, Phys. Plasmas 7, 4797 (2000)]. The viscosity stabilizes the RT instability for short wavelength perturbations when gradients of a molecular weight and a gravitational acceleration are in the same direction. It only reduces the growth rate for short wavelength perturbations when they are in the opposite directions. The growth rates have been quantitatively evaluated as functions of a normalized wavelength for various Prandtl numbers in the case when adiabatic perturbations are neutrally stable

Additional details

Identifiers

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physics of Plasmas
Journal Volume
9
Journal Issue
8
Journal Page Range
p. 3536-3539
ISSN
1070-664X
CODEN
PHPAEN

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
35037583
Subject category
S70: PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY;
Descriptors DEI
MOLECULAR WEIGHT; PLASMA WAVES; RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY; THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY; VISCOSITY
Descriptors DEC
INSTABILITY; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.