Pulse propagation in the quiescent environment during direct numerical simulation of Rayleigh-Taylor instability: Solution by Bromwich contour integral method

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the propagation of pressure pulses in a quiescent environment during Rayleigh-Taylor instability using the Bromwich contour integral method, extending previous work with theoretical and numerical insights into pulse amplification and phase effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel application of the Bromwich contour integral method to solve the PDE governing pulse propagation, considering specific phase shifts and frequency effects in a dissipative medium.

Findings

Phase shifts as multiples of π lead to pulse reinforcement.

Higher frequencies experience greater attenuation.

Theoretical results align with numerical simulations.

Abstract

In: {\it "Three-dimensional direct numerical simulation (DNS) of Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI) trigerred by acoustic excitation -- Sengupta et al. {\bf 34},054108 (2022)"} the receptivity of RTI to pressure pulses have been established. It has also been shown that at the onset of RTI these pulses are one-dimensional and the dissipation of the pressure pulses are governed by a dissipative wave equation. The propagation of these infrasonic to ultrasonic pressure pulses have been studied theoretically and numerically by a high fidelity numerical procedure in the physical plane. The numerical results are consistent with the theoretical analysis and the DNS of RTI noted above. The properties of pulse propagation in a quiescent dissipative ambience have been theoretically obtained from the linearized compressible Navier-Stokes equation, without Stokes' hypothesis. This analysis is extended here for a special class of excitation, with combination of wavenumbers and circular frequencies for which the phase shift results in an imposed time period is integral multiple of $\pi$, and the signal amplification is by a real factor. Here, the governing partial differential equation (PDE) for the free-field propagation of pulses is solved by the Bromwich contour integral method in the spectral plane. This method, for an input Gaussian pulse excited at a fixed frequency, is the so-called signal problem. Responses for the specific phase shifts integral multiple of $\pi$ can reinforce each other due to the phase coherence. It is shown that these combinations occur at a fixed wavenumber, with higher frequencies attenuated more in such a sequence.