Analysis of the development of Hydrodynamic Instability waves*

Hydrodynamic instabilities occur in high energy density situations which contain pressure, density and velocity gradients such as those which are found in astrophysical and inertial confinement fusion experiments. Our experiment produces a shockwave that collides with a wedge shaped target that produces Kelvin-Helmholtz and Richmyer-Meshkov instabilities. We use the CRASH code, a radiation hydrodynamic code developed at the University of Michigan to simulate the experiment. IDL software was then used to analyze these simulation results and determine the height of the waves (manifestations of the hydrodynamic instabilities) produced and give a better illustration of the development of the instabilities as the shock progresses along the targets diagonal interface.