Simulation of the Tilted Rig Experiment

The tilted rig experiment is a derivative of the rocket rig experiment designed to study mixing of fluids by the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. In the latter experiment, a tank containing two fluids of different densities is accelerated downwards between two parallel guide rods by a rocket motor. Misalignment between density and pressure gradients trigger the instability leading turbulence and mixing of the fluids. In the tilted rig experiment, the rocket rig is inclined by few degrees off the vertical before firing, creating a slanted initial perturbation interface. The purpose of the tilted rig experiment was to help with calibration of mixing models, as it is a unique two-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability flow. We reproduce conditions similar to this experiment using a Monotone Integrated Large Eddy Simulation (MILES) technique, and for the first time look at statistics of turbulence quantities that appears in “RANS-type” variable density turbulence model. Our statistics show that for the most part, the turbulence quantities in this two-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor instability configuration behave in a similar fashion as in the planar Rayleigh-Taylor instability configuration when looking in a direction perpendicular to the mixing layer centerline.