Density and temperature fluctuations behind a shock wave under the influence of a stratified energy source

For the conditions obtained in experiments on the interaction between a shock wave and the ionization-unstable plasma, the influence of a thermally stratified energy source on the front of a shock wave is numerically modeled on the basis of the full system of Navier–Stokes equations. It is shown that the front curvature detected in schlieren images is associated with a higher temperature of central layers in the source, while its disappearance is due to the multiple generation of Richtmyer–Meshkov instabilities in the gas density field. It is demonstrated that the redistribution of source energy into layers leads to the formation of local areas with a gas temperature increased by several times (in comparison with the values for a homogeneous source) behind a shock wave.