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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
A Type Ia supernova begins as a thermonuclear carbon flame propagating out from the center of a white dwarf star. The Rayleigh-Taylor instability and interactions with turbulence wrinkle the flame significantly, causing it to accelerate as it moves outward. We extend a low Mach number hydrodynamics method developed for terrestrial combustion, to the study of thermonuclear flames in Type Ia supernovae. We discuss the differences between 2-D and 3-D Rayleigh-Taylor unstable flame simulations, and give detailed diagnostics on the turbulence, showing that the kinetic energy power spectrum obeys Bolgiano-Obukhov statistics in 2-D, but Kolmogorov statistics in 3-D. Preliminary results from 3-D reacting bubble calculations are shown, and their implications for ignition are discussed.