P-2 Extreme Fluids Team at
Los Alamos National Laboratory


Vertical Shock Tube



Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability Studies




To learn more about the Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability clickhere!


The Vertical Shock Tube (VST) is designed to study shock-driven mixing of two fluids that are struck by a shock wave. We study the perturbations at the interface between the fluids, and how they grow due to the passage of the shock and mix the two fluids. Simultanous velocity and density field diagnostics (and soon to be implemented tomographic PIV) are used to study fluid properties and turbulence quantities.


Some experiments done with the Vertical Shock Tube coordinate with thepRadexperiments.


View from Above

View from Below

View from the Side


The VST test section has special glass that allows the laser light to pass through for imaging on cameras.

High-speed lasers and cameras are synchronized using a digital data acquisition system that is programmed to trigger off of the moving shock wave.


Special glass to allow the laser light through

High speed lasers and cameras