Mixing of active scalars due to random shock waves in two dimensions

TL;DR

This study explores how shock waves influence the mixing of active scalars in two dimensions, revealing nonlinear effects, the role of density gradients, and differences based on Atwood numbers through direct numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of active scalar mixing by shock waves, highlighting nonlinear dissipation, the impact of baroclinicity, and differences between positive and negative Atwood numbers.

Findings

Shock waves increase interface perimeter and sustain concentration gradients.

Negative Atwood numbers prolong concentration gradients compared to positive ones.

Baroclinicity enhances interface folding and stretching in the stirring regime.

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the mixing of active scalars in two dimensions by the stirring action of stochastically generated shock waves. We use direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the interaction of shock waves with two non-reacting species to analyse the mixing dynamics for different Atwood numbers (At). Unlike passive scalars, the presence of density gradients in active scalars makes the species diffusion nonlinear, introducing a concentration gradient-driven term and a density gradient-driven nonlinear dissipation term in the concentration evolution equation. We show that the direction of the concentration gradient causes the interface across which molecular diffusion occurs to expand outward or inward, even without any stirring action. Shock waves enhance the mixing process by increasing the perimeter of the interface and by sustaining concentration gradients. Negative Atwood number mixtures sustain concentration gradients for longer time than positive Atwood number mixtures due to the so-called nonlinear dissipation terms. We estimate the time till when the action of stirring is dominant over molecular mixing. We also highlight the role of baroclinicity in increasing the interface perimeter in the stirring dominant regime. We compare the stirring effect of shock waves on mixing of passive scalars with active scalars and show that the vorticity generated by baroclinicity is responsible for the folding and stretching of the interface in the case of active scalars. We conclude by showing that lighter mixtures with denser inhomogeneities (At < 0) take longer time to homogenise than the denser mixtures with lighter inhomogeneities (At > 0).