Turbulent mixing with physical mass diffusion

Simulated mixing rates of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability for miscible fluids with physical mass diffusion are shown to agree with experiment; for immiscible fluids with physical values of surface tension the numerical data lie in the center of the range of experimental values. The simulations are based on an improved front tracking algorithm to control numerical surface tension and on improved physical modeling to allow physical values of mass diffusion or surface tension. Compressibility, after correction for variable density effects, has also been shown to have a strong influence on mixing rates. In summary, we find significant dependence of the mixing rates on scale breaking phenomena. We introduce tools to analyze the bubble merger process and confirm that bubble interactions, as in a bubble merger model, drive the mixing growth rate.