RAYLEIGH-TAYLOR INSTABILITY EXPERIMENTS EXAMINING FEEDTHROUGH GROWTH IN AN INCOMPRESSIBLE, CONVERGENT GEOMETRY

We have performed Rayleigh-Taylor instability and feedthrough growth e xperiments in a 2D cylindrically convergent geometry by imploding gela tin cylinders with high-pressure gases. Instability growth was seeded by fabricating sinusoidal undulations on the outer surfaces of the cyl inders, which were then observed during implosion with high-speed fram ing cameras. These experiments are the first to study feedthrough pert urbation growth in an incompressible, convergent geometry. We compare the results to small-amplitude perturbation analysis and to a recent r adiation-drive feedthrough experiment.