Computations and experiments of Richtmeyer-Meshkov like instabilities in shock-driven particle-laden flow*

Computations and experiments are performed of the interaction between a shock and a particle-seeded curtain.
Particles have a volume fraction of approximately 4% by volume, and the rest is air. With pertubations in the curtain,
computations show vortex like structures occur in the dispersed phase after the shock-curtain interaction. The structures are comparable to those typically found in Richtmeyer-Meshkov instabilities . The vortices, however, are formed by variations in the number density in the particle phase and are suprisingly unrelated to baroclinic mechanisms. The growth rate of the instability is linear and is equally surpisingly following Richtmeyer-Meshkov analysis. Experimental results of the same setup are also discussed.