Fluid mechanics with a twist : shock bubble interactions in magnetised astrophysical flows.

Author / Creator

Wattal, Gandhari, author

Available as

Online

Physical

Summary

In this thesis a study of shocks traversing over inhomogeneities is presented. While this kind of interaction is found in various branches of science such as Inertial Confinement Fusion, Nautical C...

In this thesis a study of shocks traversing over inhomogeneities is presented. While this kind of interaction is found in various branches of science such as Inertial Confinement Fusion, Nautical Cavitation, Sonoluminescence this thesis is primarily inclined towards the astrophysical context. Shocks are found in many different scenarios in astronomy such as in supernova remnants, collisions of galaxies, jets propagating through the Intra Cluster Medium. Astrophysical flows are often heterogeneous and multi phase such as the gas in the Interstellar Medium, Intra Cluster Medium. The interaction of shocks with these inhomogeneities is interesting in itself as well as the impact that this interaction might have on the thermodynamics of the surrounding medium is worth investigating. The main focus of this thesis is on the case where an external shock propagates over inhomogeneities in the Intra Cluster Medium. While the hydrodynamics of this shock bubble interaction has been done earlier, the Intra Cluster Medium is magnetised and this was a important question that this thesis tries to answer. Along with varying the strength, topology variation and its impact on the interaction was studied. An interesting extension to the problem of the spherical inhomogeneity interacting with a shock is to look at the case where the circumference of the inhomogeneity has a corrugation and what impact that would have on the vorticity and the flow field that develops. This was the basis of the last project in this thesis.

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