Numerical modeling of the kinematics of turbulent mixing in HE-driven blast waves

High-explosive driven blast waves contain a contact surface which is Rayleigh-Taylor unstable. The kinematics of the mixing at this surface was studied numerically with a one dimensional hydrocode. A k-o turbulence model was used to simulate the growth and decay of turbulence for this problem; source terms were included to model the Rayleigh-Taylor instability mechanism. It is demonstrated that this k-o model does generate turbulent mixing near the contact surface and nowhere else in the flow field. The magnitude of the turbulence depends on the turbulence model parameter, particularly the Rayleigh-Taylor coefficient, C, and the viscosity coefficients.