P-2 Extreme Fluids Team at
Los Alamos National Laboratory
TheLos Alamos National Labsuse the pRad facility for many diverse experiments for many types of sciences.
pRad experiments are sometimes done in coordination with both theVertical Shock Tubeand theHorizontal Shock Tube.
TheRichtmyer-Meshkov studiesin pRad are designed to study the effects of high Mach number. A gas gun is used to drive a high Mach shock (greater than mach 8) into a background gas. The gases are separated using a membrane. Previous experiments used thin plastic frames covered in aluminized Mylar, while future experiments are exploring additive manufacturing to design single and multi-mode interfaces.
The protons provided from the pRad facility are used to image the two gases and the mixing region. The gases are chosen such one is opaque to the protons, while the second is transparent. Results from Xe-He mixing can be found under publications in the paper:Experimental adventures in variable-density mixing.
 A gas gun is used to launch an eight or greater mach shot into background gasses |
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 Circular membranes that separate the gas |
 Capsule to hold the gasses and membrane |
The team examines the effect of many particles being subjected to a detonation wave. Proton radiography allows examination of the particles within the optically opaque explosive products as well as examining the internal structure of the bed.
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