Related Experiment Videos
Blast-wave-sphere interaction using a laser-produced plasma: an experiment motivated by supernova 1987A
Y G Kang1, K Nishihara, H Nishimura
1Institute of Laser Engineering, Osaka University, 2-6 Yamada-Oka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|November 3, 2001
Abstract:
We present x-ray shadowgraphs from a high Mach number ( approximately 20) laboratory environment that simulate outward flowing ejecta matter from supernovae that interact with ambient cloud matter. Using a laser-plastic foil interaction, we generate a "complex" blast wave (a supersonic flow containing forward and reverse shock waves and a contact discontinuity between them) that interacts with a high-density (100 times ambient) sphere. The experimental results, including vorticity localization, compare favorably with two-dimensional axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations.