Applications of Canuto's method to Rayleigh-Taylor-initiated turbulence

The recently published method of Canuto and Goldman for estimating large scale turbulent energies from instability growth rates was applied to Rayleigh-Taylor initiated turbulence. Simple closed expressions were derived for the kinetic energy spectrum of turbulent eddies and the total kinetic energy. The results depend very much on the smallest realizable wavenumber; that is, all the energy lies in the largest eddies. Calculations based on this model indicate that for systems of the order of centimeters, the total turbulent kinetic energy density can be considerably greater than the translational kinetic energy of the perturbed interface, for interface velocities of the order of a few cm/sec or greater. Thus, the turbulent energy substantially impacts the energy balance of such systems. Applications exist in many laboratory and astrophysical cases of general interest.