A laboratory investigation of supersonic clumpy flows: Experimental design and theoretical analysis

We present a design for high energy density laboratory experiments studying the interaction of hypersonic shocks with a large number of inhomogeneities. These clumpy'' flows are relevant to a wide variety of astrophysical environments, including the evolution of molecular clouds, outflows from young stars, planetary nebulae, and active galactic nuclei. The experiment consists of a strong shock (driven by a pulsed-power machine or a high-intensity laser) impinging on a region of randomly placed plastic rods. We discuss the goals of the specific design and how they are met by specific choices of target components. An adaptive mesh refinement hydrodynamic code is used to analyze the design and establish a predictive baseline for the experiments. The simulations confirm the effectiveness of the design in terms of articulating the differences between shocks propagating through smooth and clumpy environments. In particular, we find significant differences between the shock propagation speeds in a clumpy medium and those in a smooth one with the same average density. The simulation results are of general interest for foams in both inertial confinement fusion and laboratory astrophysics studies. Our results highlight the danger of using average properties of inhomogeneous astrophysical environments when comparing timescales for critical processes, such as shock crossing and gravitational collapse.