Experimental assessment of mixing layer scaling laws in Rayleigh-Taylor instability
Marco De Paoli, Diego Perissutti, Cristian Marchioli, Alfredo Soldati
Abstract
We assess experimentally the existence of a superlinear scaling for the growth of the mixing region in a confined porous medium. We employ an optical method to obtain high-resolution measurements of the density fields in Hele-Shaw flows, and we perform experiments for large values of the Rayleigh-Darcy number. We can confirm that the growth of the mixing length during the convection-dominated phase follows the scaling predicted by previous two-dimensional simulations.
Topics & Concepts
ScalingRayleigh–Taylor instabilityMixing (physics)InstabilityScaling lawMechanicsRayleigh scatteringConvectionPorous mediumPhysicsStatistical physicsMaterials scienceMathematicsPorosityOpticsGeometryComposite materialQuantum mechanicsFluid Dynamics and Turbulent FlowsTheoretical and Computational PhysicsGeological and Geochemical Analysis