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Recycling systems aboard spacecraft are currently limited to approximately 80% water recovery from urine. To address challenges associated with odors, contamination, and microgravity fluid flow phenomena, current systems use toxic pretreatment chemicals, filters, and rotary separators. Herein, a semipassive and potentially contaminant- and biofouling-free approach to spacecraft urine processing is developed by combining passive liquid–gas separation, nanophotonic pasteurization, and noncontact Leidenfrost droplet distillation. The system aims to achieve >98% water recovery from wastewater streams in zero, Lunar, Martian, and terrestrial gravitational environments. The surfaces of the phase separator are coated with carbon black nanoparticles that are irradiated by infrared light-emitting diodes (LEDs) producing hyperlocal heating and pasteurization during urine collection, separation, and storage. For the prescribed flow rate and timeline, the urine is then introduced into a heated 8.5-m-long helical hemicircular aluminum track. The low pitch and the high temperature of the track combine to establish weakly gravity-driven noncontact Leidenfrost droplet distillation conditions. In our technology demonstrations, salt-free distillate and concentrated brine are successfully recovered from saltwater feed stocks. We estimate equivalent system mass metrics for the approach, which compare favorably to the current water recovery system aboard the International Space Station.

In this work, we analyze liquid drains from containers in effective zero-g conditions aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The efficient draining of capillary fluids from conduits, containers, and media is critical in particular to high-value liquid samples such as minuscule biofluidics processing on earth and enormous cryogenic fuels management aboard spacecraft. The amount and rate of liquid drained can be of key concern. In the absence of strong gravitational effects, system geometry, and liquid wetting dominate capillary fluidic behavior. During the years 2010–2015, NASA conducted a series of handheld experiments aboard the ISS to observe “large” length scale capillary fluidic phenomena in a variety of irregular containers with interior corners. In this work, we focus on particular single exit port draining flows from such containers and digitize hours of archived NASA video records to quantify transient interface profiles and volumetric flow rates. These data are immediately useful for theoretical and numerical model benchmarks. We demonstrate this by making comparisons to lubrication models for slender flows in simplified geometries which show variable agreement with the data, in part validating certain geometry-dependent dynamical interface curvature boundary conditions while invalidating others. We further compare the data for the draining of complex vane networks and identify the limits of the current theory. All analyzed data is made available to the public as MATLAB files, as detailed within.

The rebound of large water jets from a superhydrophobic substrate in the low-gravity environment of a drop tower is investigated. A regime map is constructed from drop tower test data. Scaling laws and simulations are used to identify boundaries between jet rebound regimes and to predict landing flow geometry.

In the reduced acceleration environment aboard orbiting spacecraft, capillary forces are often exploited to access and control the location and stability of fuels, propellants, coolants, and biological liquids in containers (tanks) for life support. To access the &lsquo, far reaches&rsquo, of such tanks, the passive capillary pumping mechanism of interior corner networks can be employed to achieve high levels of draining. With knowledge of maximal corner drain rates, gas ingestion can be avoided and accurate drain transients predicted. In this paper, we benchmark a numerical method for the symmetric draining of capillary liquids in simple interior corners. The free surface is modeled through a volume of fluid (VOF) algorithm via interFoam, a native OpenFOAM solver. The simulations are compared with rare space experiments conducted on the International Space Station. The results are also buttressed by simplified analytical predictions where practicable. The fact that the numerical model does well in all cases is encouraging for further spacecraft tank draining applications of significantly increased geometric complexity and fluid inertia.

The jetting phenomenon from impinging droplets on partially wetting hydrophilic substrates composed of cylindrical micropillars is studied. Impact velocity and fluid viscosity are varied to characterize the jets. It is found that the jetting phenomenon arises for certain ranges of Weber and Ohnesorge numbers. Jet speed, height, and diameter scale linearly with the Weber number. The scaling analysis indicates that the jet is produced by pure inertial focusing of radial flow due to the collapse of an air cavity formed at the center of the drop during the recoiling phase of the impact.

A new lubrication model solution is found for the late-stage draining of a wetting capillary liquid from a linear interior corner. The solution exploits the symmetry of volumetric sink conditions at opposing ends of such a ‘double-drained’ interior corner flow with applications ranging from liquid recovery in microfluidic devices on Earth to liquid fuel scavenging in large fuel tanks aboard spacecraft. At long times $t$, the nominal liquid depth is $h\sim t^{-1}$, the liquid volume is $V\sim t^{-2}$ and the maximum volumetric liquid removal rate is $Q\sim t^{-3}$. The constraints under which the solution is valid are provided. To qualitatively assess the value of the solution, representative experiments are conducted at larger length scales aboard the International Space Station and at microfluidic length scales in a terrestrial laboratory. Both sets of experiments confirm the predicted power-law dependences. We show that the separation of variables solution offers a method to predict maximum drain rates from related geometries where a single drain location provides the required symmetry of the problem.

This year marks the 55th anniversary of the first fluid physics experiment performed aboard a spacecraft during the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission. Since then, NASA has conducted over 80 fluids physics ex...

Droplet-wall impacts are well known to produce a wide variety of outcomes such as spreading, splashing, jetting, receding, and rebounding from hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces. In this work, we focus on the growth of jets that form during the partial recoil of liquid droplets that impinge upon hydrophilic substrates composed of cylindrical micro-pillars of various dimensions and distributions (i.e., height, width, pillar spacing, etc.). Micro-pillars are fabricated on the hydrophilic silicon wafers by standard microfabrication processes, including metal etch mask patterning by photolithography, metal deposition, and lift-off to achieve the designed pillar shapes and spacing, and followed by dry etching for various pillar heights. Micrometer-sized drops of glycerol mixtures impacting micro-structured wafers are investigated using high-speed video photography. Impact velocities are varied to observe the influence of Weber number on the dynamic properties of the rebounding jet and jet initiation time, as well as whether or not the jet detaches ejecting satellite droplets normal to the substrate surface. The specific influence of the micro-patterned surfaces on maximum spreading, jet formation, jet tip velocity, and jet ejection is characterized. We find that the micro-patterned substrates have a significant effect on the behavior of the drop impact and jetting mechanism. From our experiments, we find that jet velocity is approximately 4 times that of the drop impact velocity. The jet formation time is shown to follow the capillary time scale as (ρDi3/σ)½ (where ρ, Di, and σ are density, initial droplet diameter, and surface tension, respectively).

We investigate the dynamics of spontaneous jumps of water drops from electrically charged nonwetting dielectric substrates during sudden step reductions in the gravity level. In the free-fall environment of a drop tower, the dynamics of drops subject to external electric fields are dominated by the Coulombic force instead of gravity. These forces lead to a drop bouncing behavior similar to well-known terrestrial phenomena though occurring for much larger drops (∼0.5 ml). We provide a one-dimensional model for the phenomenon, its scaling, and asymptotic estimates for drop time-of-flight in two regimes: at short-times close to the substrate when drop inertia balances the Coulombic force due to net free charge and image charges in the dielectric substrate, and at long-times far from the substrate when drop inertia balances free charge Coulombic force and drag. In both regimes, the dimensionless electrostatic Euler number Eu, which is a ratio of inertia to electrostatic force, appears as a key parameter.

The nearly step reduction in gravity arising in routine drop tower tests leads to numerous interesting large-length-scale capillary flow phenomena. For example, a liquid puddle at equilibrium on a hydrophobic substrate is observed to spontaneously jump from the substrate during such tests. Implementing a modified version of the open-source Gerris code, we numerically investigate such a puddle jump phenomenon for a variety of water puddles on flat substrates. We quantify a range of puddle jump characteristics including jump time, jump velocity, and free puddle oscillation modes for an unearthly range of drop volumes between 0.001 ml and 15 ml and substrate contact angles between 60° and 175°. A numerical regime map is constructed identifying no jump, standard jump, bubble ingestion, geyser formation, drop fission, and satellite puddle jump regimes. Favorable agreement is found between the simulations, experiments, simple theoretical models, and scaling laws.

Since the inception of 3D printing, an evolutionary process has taken place in which specific user and customer needs have crossed paths with the capabilities of a growing number of machines to create value-added businesses. Even today, over 30 years later, the growth of 3D printing and its utilization for the good of society is often limited by the various users' understanding of the technology for their specific needs. This article presents an overview of current 3D printing technologies and shows numerous examples from a multitude of fields from manufacturing to education.

Capillary channel techniques with free liquid surfaces provide very reliable means for liquid management in space. However, capillary channel flow is subject to limitation due to liquid surface instabilities when a critical flow rate is reached. Steady flow rate limitation is a consequence of the choking effect and well understood. Critical steady flow rate computation with a one-dimensional model is related to a numerical singularity which occurs at critical flow. For transient flow the singularity does not occur. Therefore, a new transient stability model is defined. It is based on the steady model, a simplified transient momentum balance, the consideration of the capillary pressure of typical observed surface shapes, and on a simplified dynamic inside the channel. The balance and dynamic are defined by liquid and geometrical properties only and therefore significantly easier to compute than a transient differential equation system. In 2011, experiments were performed in cooperation with NASA on the International Space Station (ISS) to confirm the model for steady flow and validate the new transient model. A new phenomenon is discussed, the flexibility effect, which provides significant additional transient stability for channels of sufficient length. An undesired feedback effect, provoked by the reuse of the liquid in a circular loop of the experimental setup, and which influenced the measurements, is compensated by a semi-empirical model for a feedback ratio.

The ability to separate liquid and gas phases in the absence of a gravitational acceleration has proven a challenge to engineers since the inception of space exploration. Due to our singular experience with terrestrial systems, artificial body forces are often imparted in multiphase fluid systems aboard spacecraft to reproduce the buoyancy effect. This approach tends to be inefficient, adding complexity, resources, and failure modes. Ever present in multiphase phenomena, the forces of surface tension can be exploited to aid passive phase separations where performance characteristics are determined solely by geometric design and system wettability. Said systems may be readily designed as demonstrated herein where a regulated bubbly flow is drawn through an open triangular sectioned duct. The bubbles passively migrate toward the free surface where they coalesce and leave the flow. The tests clearly show container aspect ratios required for passive phase separations for various liquid and gas flow rates. Preliminary data are presented as regime maps demarking complete phase separation. Long duration microgravity experiments are performed aboard the International Space Station. Supplementary experiments are conducted using a drop tower.

A variety of contemplative demonstrations concerning intermediate-to-large length scale capillary fluidic phenomena were made possible by the brief weightless environment of a drop tower (Wollman and Weislogel in Exp Fluids 54(4):1, 2013). In that work, capillarity-driven flows leading to unique spontaneous droplet ejections, bubble ingestions, and multiphase flows were introduced and discussed. Such efforts are continued herein. The spontaneous droplet ejection phenomena (auto-ejection) is reviewed and demonstrated on earth as well as aboard the International Space Station. This technique is then applied to novel low-g droplet combustion where soot tube structures are created in the wakes of burning drops. A variety of new tests are presented that routinely demonstrate ‘puddle jumping,’ a process defined as the spontaneous recoil and ejection of large liquid drops from hydrophobic surfaces following the step reduction in ‘gravity’ characteristic of most drop towers. The inverse problem of ‘bubble jumping’ is also demonstrated for the case of hydrophilic surfaces. A variety of puddle jump demonstrations are presented in summary as a means of suggesting the further exploitation of drop towers to study such large length scale capillary phenomena.

Irregular conduits, complex surfaces, and porous media often manifest more than one geometric wetting condition for spontaneous capillary flows. As a result, different regions of the flow exhibit different rates of flow, all the while sharing common dynamical capillary pressure boundary conditions. The classic problem of sudden capillary rise in tubes with interior corners is revisited from this perspective and solved numerically in the self-similar ${\ensuremath{\sim} }{t}^{1/ 2} $ visco-capillary limit à la Lucas–Washburn. Useful closed-form analytical solutions are obtained in asymptotic limits appropriate for many practical flows in conduits containing one or more interior corner. The critically wetted corners imbibe fluid away from the bulk capillary rise, shortening the viscous column length and slightly increasing the overall flow rate. The extent of the corner flow is small for many closed conduits, but becomes significant for flows along open channels and the method is extended to approximate hemiwicking flows across triangular grooved surfaces. It is shown that an accurate application of the method depends on an accurate a priori assessment of the competing viscous cross-section length scales, and the expedient Laplacian scaling method is applied herein toward this effect.

In the absence of significant body forces the passive manipulation of fluid interfacial flows is naturally achieved by control of the specific geometry and wetting properties of the system. Numerous ‘microfluidic’ systems on Earth and ‘macrofluidic’ systems aboard spacecraft routinely exploit such methods and the term ‘capillary fluidics’ is used to describe both length-scale limits. In this work a collection of analytic solutions is offered for passive and weakly forced flows where a bulk capillary liquid is slowly drained or supplied by a faster capillary flow along at least one interior edge of the container. The solutions are enabled by an assumed known pressure (or known height) dynamical boundary condition. Following a series of assumptions this boundary condition can be in part determined a priori from the container dimensions and further quantitative experimental evidence, but not proof, is provided in support of its expanded use herein. In general, a small parameter arises in the scaling of the problems permitting a decoupling of the edge flow from the global bulk meniscus flow. The quasi-steady asymptotic system of equations that results may then be easily solved in closed form for a useful variety of geometries including uniform and tapered sections possessing at least one critically wetted interior edge. Draining, filling, bubble displacement and other imbibing flows are studied. Cursory terrestrial and drop tower experiments agree well with the solutions. The solutions are valued for the facility they provide in computing designs for selected capillary fluidics problems by way of passive transport rates and meniscus displacement. Because geometric permutations of any given design are myriad, such analytic tools are capable of efficiently identifying and comparing critical design criteria (i.e. shape and size) and the impact of various wetting conditions resulting from the fluid properties and surface conditions. Sample optimizations are performed to demonstrate the utility of the method.

It is well recognized that water handling systems used in a spacecraft are prone to failure caused by biofouling and mineral scaling, which can clog mechanical systems and degrade the performance of capillary-based technologies. Long duration spaceflight applications, such as extended stays at a Lunar Outpost or during a Mars transit mission, will increasingly benefit from hardware that is generally more robust and operationally sustainable over time. This paper presents design strategies and testing considerations for improving the reliability of water handling technologies. Our application of interest is to devise a spacecraft wastewater management system wherein fouling can be accommodated by design attributes of the management hardware, rather than implementing some means of preventing its occurrence. Two representative boundary applications are presented. The first is a short term application where reduced gravity flight tests demonstrated a static phase separator prototype that achieved nearly 100% separation of gas from liquids under widely varying wetting conditions correlated to anticipated ranges of wastewater fouling. The second is a design concept for a lunar outpost water recovery system where wastewater is allowed to age and form biofilms and precipitates that can be filtered through lunar regolith media as the water is reclaimed. Both applications are supported by similar underlying principles of facilitating sustainable fluid handling in the presence of fouled surfaces.

DOI: 10.2514/1.47343 This paper introduces a video database reduced from the handheld capillary flow contact line experiments completed aboard the International Space Station during expeditions 9–16, August 2004–November 2007. The simple fluid interface experiments quantify the uncertain impact of the boundary condition at the contact line: the region where liquid, gas, and solid meet. This region controls many significant static and dynamic characteristics of the large length scale capillary phenomena critical to multiphase fluids management systems aboard spacecraft. Differences in fluid behavior of nearly identical static interfaces to nearly identical perturbations are attributed primarily to differences in fluid physics in the vicinity of the contact line. Free and pinned contact lines, large and small contact angles, and linear and nonlinear perturbations are tested for several manually imparted perturbation types(i.e.,axial,slosh,andothermodes)torightcircularcylinders.Thevideoandsampledigitizeddatasetsaremade publiclyavailableformodelbenchmarking.Asademonstrationoftheutilityofthedatabase,andinparallelwiththe experimental effort, blind numerical predictions of the dynamic interface response to the experimentally applied inputperturbationsareofferedasanexampleofcurrentcapabilitiestopredictsuchphenomena.Theagreementand lack of agreement between the experiments and numerics is a guide to improve or verify current analytical methods to predict such phenomena critical to practical spacecraft fluid systems design.

Drop towers continue to provide unique capabilities to investigate capillary flow phenomena relevant to terrestrial and space-based capillary fluidics applications. In this study certain ‘capillary rise’ flows and the value of drop tower experimental investigations are briefly reviewed. A new analytic solution for flows along planar interior edges is presented. A selection of test cell geometries are then discussed where compound capillary flows occur spontaneously and simultaneously over local and global length scales. Sample experimental results are provided. Tertiary experiments on a family of asymmetric geometries that isolate the global component of such flows are then presented along with a qualitative analysis that may be used to either avoid or exploit such flows. The latter may also serve as a design tool with which to assess the impact of inadvertent container asymmetry.

This paper provides a current overview of the in-flight operations and experimental results of the capillary flow experiment (CFE) performed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) beginning August 2004 to present, with at least 16 operations to date by five astronauts. CFE consists of six approximately 1–2 kg experiment units designed to probe certain capillary phenomena of fundamental and applied importance, such as capillary flow in complex containers, critical wetting in discontinuous structures, and large length scale contact line dynamics. Highly quantitative video images from the simply performed experiments provide direct confirmation of the usefulness of current analytical design tools as well as provide guidance to the development of new ones. A description of the experiments, crew procedures, performances and status of the data collection and reduction is provided for the project. The specific experimental objectives are briefly introduced by way of the crew procedures and a sample of the verified theoretical predictions of the fluid behavior is provided. The potential impact of the flight experiments on the design of spacecraft fluid systems is discussed in passing.

A variety of micro scale surface wicking structures that form open/covered post surfaces and open channels are investigated to probe the effect of the geometry, inter-connectivity, and surface porosity on the wicking efficiency of such surfaces. The surfaces are examined using a capillary rise flow experiment and the study is focused on the Lucas-Washburn flow regime in which capillary forces balance viscous forces.

Capillary solutions have long existed for the control of liquid inventories in spacecraft fluid systems such as liquid propellants, cryogens and thermal fluids for temperature control. Such large length scale, ‘low-gravity,’ capillary systems exploit container geometry and fluid properties—primarily wetting—to passively locate or transport fluids to desired positions for a variety of purposes. Such methods have only been confidently established if the wetting conditions are known and favorable. In this paper, several of the significant challenges for ‘capillary solutions’ to low-gravity multiphase fluids management aboard spacecraft are briefly reviewed in light of applications common to life support systems that emphasize the impact of the widely varying wetting properties typical of aqueous systems. A restrictive though no less typifying example of passive phase separation in a urine collection system is highlighted that identifies key design considerations potentially met by predominately capillary solutions. Sample results from novel scale model prototype testing aboard a NASA low-g aircraft are presented that support the various design considerations.

The surface evolver (SE) algorithm is a valued numerical tool for computations of complex equilibrium interfacial phenomena. In this work, an iterative procedure is implemented such that SE can be employed to predict steady-state flows along capillary channels of arbitrary cross-section. As a demonstration, a one-dimensional stream filament flow model is solved that approximates the pressure changes inside the channel. Despite its simplicity, the precision, stability, and speed of the method affirm it as an efficient and unique design tool for a variety of capillary flow problems. The procedure is ideally suited for slender column flows such as open wedge channel flows, several of which are validated herein via parabolic flight and drop tower experiments.

Wicking structures based on interior corner geometry as the fundamental transport mechanism have been studied in microgravity environments. These structures provide for highly efficient passive transport that can be exploited in advanced two-phase passive cooling systems for applications in areas such as thermal control for microelectronics. Several pilot designs have been manufactured and tested and their performance is reported.

Closed-form analytic solutions useful for the design of capillary flows in a variety of containers possessing interior corners were recently collected and reviewed. Low-g drop tower and aircraft experiments performed at NASA to date show excellent agreement between theory and experiment for perfectly wetting fluids. The analytical expressions are general in terms of contact angle, but do not account for variations in contact angle between the various surfaces within the system. Such conditions may be desirable for capillary containment or to compute the behavior of capillary corner flows in containers consisting of different materials with widely varying wetting characteristics. A simple coordinate rotation is employed to recast the governing system of equations for flows in containers with interior corners with differing contact angles on the faces of the corner. The result is that a large number of capillary driven corner flows may be predicted with only slightly modified geometric functions dependent on corner angle and the two (or more) contact angles of the system. A numerical solution is employed to verify the new problem formulation. The benchmarked computations support the use of the existing theoretical approach to geometries with variable wettability. Simple experiments may be performed to confirm the theoretical findings. Favorable agreement between such experiments and the present theory may argue well for the extension of the analytic results to predict fluid performance in future large length scale capillary fluid systems for spacecraft as well as for small scale capillary systems on Earth.

Recent investigations have successfully demonstrated closed-form analytical solutions of spontaneous capillary flows in idealized cylindrical containers with interior corners. In this work, the theory is extended and applied to complex containers modeling spacecraft fuel tanks employing propellant-management devices (PMDs) consisting of networks of vanes. The specific problem investigated is one of spontaneous rewetting of a typical partially filled liquid-fuel/cryogen tank with PMD after thrust resettling. The transients of this flow impact the logistics of orbital maneuvers and potentially tank thermal control. The general procedure to compute the initial condition for the closed-form transient flows is first outlined and then solved for several complex cylindrical tanks exhibiting symmetry. The utility and limitations of the technique as a design tool are discussed in a summary, which also highlights comparisons with NASA flight data of a model propellant tank with PMD

In response to the growing need for design specific solutions predicting interface existence and stability in an ever-increasing number of low-gravity fluids systems applications, K. A. Brakke's surface evolver (SE) algorithm, developed to compute complex interfacial static equilibria, is demonstrated to successfully compute critical contact angles and the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. SE is first benchmarked against limited available analytical solutions and then extended to solve the specific problem of stability in rectangular containers where the effect of discontinuous boundaries and wetting play a dramatic role. In this new light SE is shown to serve the purposes of an equilibrium interface solver, critical contact angle solver, and a capillary stability solver. Concerning the latter and in contrast to other numerical dynamic stability schemes, the significantly increased time efficiency and accuracy of the approach for capillary stability problems of significant geometric complexity argue for the use of SE as a valuable tool for spacecraft systems design

Recent advances in the analysis of a class of capillary-driven flows relevant to materials processing and general fluids management in space have been made. The class of flows addressed concern spontaneous capillary flows in complex containers with interior comers. Such flows are commonplace in space-based fluid systems and arise from the particular container geometry and wetting properties of the system. Important applications for this work involve low-g liquid fill and drain operations where the container geometry is complex, possessing interior corners, and where quantitative information of fluid location, transients, flow rates, and stability is critical. Examples include the storage and handling of liquid propellants and cryogens, water conditioning for life support, fluid phase-change thermal systems for temperature control and power production, materials processing in the liquid state, and on-orbit biofluids processing. For several important problems, closed-form expressions to transient three-dimensional flows are possible that, as design tools, compliment if not replace difficult, time-consuming, and rarely performed numerical calculations. The theory is readily extended to address more complex flows. An overview of a selection of solutions in-hand is presented. Drop tower and low-g aircraft experimental results are cited to support the theoretical findings.

An improved understanding of the large-length-scale capillary flows arising in a low-gravity environment is critical to that engineering community concerned with the design and analysis of spacecraft fluids management systems. Because a significant portion of liquid behavior in spacecraft is capillary dominated, it is natural to consider designs that best exploit the spontaneous character of such flows. In the present work a recently verified asymptotic analysis is extended to approximate spontaneous capillary flows in a large class of cylindrical containers of irregular polygonal section experiencing a step reduction in gravitational acceleration. Drop tower tests are conducted using partially filled irregular triangular containers for comparison with the theoretical predictions. The degree to which the experimental data agree with the theory is a testament to the robustness of the basic analytical assumption of predominantly parallel flow. As a result, the closed-form analytical expressions presented serve as simple, accurate tools for predicting bulk flow characteristics essential to practical low-g system design and analysis

Capillary flow of a sinusoidally perturbed liquid column in an interior corner of infinite extent is solved using lubrication theory. Due primarily to the length scales selected to nondimensionalize the momentum equation, an analytic time scale governing the settling of the perturbation is determined. The time scale, which is shown to be independent of a steady base state flow, proves useful in rapidly predicting transients for surface settling in certain liquid-bearing tanks of spacecraft employing interior corners for fluids management purposes. The asymptotic analysis is extended to address flows along interior corners whose faces are slightly nonplanar. The generalized formulation is presented for the case of a perfectly wetting fluid in a second-order polynomial corner. A leading-order analytic solution for small corner angles is provided. It is shown that a “convex corner” decreases the response time of the liquid and increases the capillary flow rate along the corner by increasing both the driving force and cross-sectional area of the flow. Gravity acting normal to the corner axis along the bisector of the corner angle is also considered and is found to accelerate, decelerate, or destabilize such flows depending on its sign and magnitude.

Mathematical theory predicts that small changes in container shape or in contact angle can give rise to large shifts of liquid in a microgravity environment. This phenomenon was investigated in the Interface Configuration Experiment on board the NASA USML-2 Space Shuttle flight. The experiment’s “double proboscis” containers were designed to strike a balance between conflicting requirements of sizable volume of liquid shift (for ease of observation) and abruptness of the shift (for accurate determination of critical contact angle). The experimental results support the classical concept of macroscopic contact angle and demonstrate the role of hysteresis in impeding orientation toward equilibrium.

Experimental results from the Interface Configuration Experiment (ICE) performed aboard the Space Shuttle and the Mir Space Station are reported. The experiment concerns fluid interfaces in certain ‘exotic’ containers in a low-gravity environment. These containers are rotationally symmetric and have the property that for given contact angle and liquid volume, a continuum of distinct rotationally symmetric equilibrium configurations can appear, all of which have the same mechanical energy. These symmetric equilibrium configurations are unstable, in that deformations that are not rotationally symmetric can be shown mathematically to yield configurations with lower energy. It is found experimentally, in confirmation of mathematical results and of numerical computations, that distinct locally stable configurations can form that are not rotationally symmetric and have differing dynamic characteristics. It is found that this intriguing phenomenon of asymmetric local energy minimizers can occur even if conditions for an exotic container are not entirely met.

The design of fluids management processes in the low-gravity environment of space requires an accurate description of capillarity-controlled flow in containers. Here we consider the spontaneous redistribution of fluid along an interior corner of a container due to capillary forces. The analytical portion of the work presents an asymptotic formulation in the limit of a slender fluid column, slight surface curvature along the flow direction z, small inertia, and low gravity. The scaling introduced explicitly accounts for much of the variation of flow resistance due to geometry and so the effects of corner geometry can be distinguished from those of surface curvature. For the special cases of a constant height boundary condition and a constant flow condition, the similarity solutions yield that the length of the fluid column increases as t1/2 and t3/5, respectively. In the experimental portion of the work, measurements from a 2.2 s drop tower are reported. An extensive data set, collected over a previously unexplored range of flow parameters, includes estimates of repeatability and accuracy, the role of inertia and column slenderness, and the effects of corner angle, container geometry, and fluid properties. At short times, the fluid is governed by inertia (t[lsim ]tLc). Afterwards, an intermediate regime (tLc[lsim ]t[lsim ] tH) can be shown to be modelled by a constant-flow-like similarity solution. For t[ges ]tH it is found that there exists a location zH at which the interface height remains constant at a value h(zH, t)=H which can be shown to be well predicted. Comprehensive comparison is made between the analysis and measurements using the constant height boundary condition. As time increases, it is found that the constant height similarity solution describes the flow over a lengthening interval which extends from the origin to the invariant tip solution. For t[Gt ]tH, the constant height solution describes the entire flow domain. A formulation applicable throughout the container (not just in corners) is presented in the limit of long times.

A spontaneous, steady capillary flow is produced for a liquid index in a circular tube that is partially coated with a surface modifier to create a discontinuous wetting condition between upstream and downstream portions of the tube. As a means of demonstrating that the flow configuration may prove useful as a diagnostic tool in studies concerning capillarity and the physics associated with the moving contact line, average steady velocities are predicted and compared against a large experimental data set that includes the effects of tube dimensions and fluid properties. To access a wider range of tube diameters (0.516-9.88 mm), experiments are performed employing U-tubes tested in the low-gravity environment of a drop tower, in addition to straight capillary tubes tested horizontally in a laboratory. The sensitivity of the steady capillary flow to surface cleanliness is dramatic.

The reorientation and settling of a liquid/gas interfacein a right circular cylinder upon step reduction in gravity is investigated numerically. A modie ed dynamic contact angle boundary condition is implemented where the hysteresis parameter ° is employed as an adjustable parameter representing the degree of relative slip at the contact line. The effect of the boundary condition on the axial interface oscillation is studied and the dependence thereon of the resonant frequency and settling time is given. Results are shown regarding the behavior of the dynamic contact angle and the penetration of the surface oscillations into the bulk liquid. The numerical results aretuned via comparisons with existing experimentaldata, and a method forestimating theappropriateboundary condition providing good agreement is suggested. An accompanying scale analysis depicts ° as a function of the Ohnesorge number, the cylinder radius, and the static contact angle. These independent parameters are measures of the system damping, characteristic surface dee ection, and effective stiffness of the interface. Applications of the results may be made to spacecraft e uids management and the use of spacecraft and/or drop towers for e uids experimentation.

In the near-weightless environment of orbiting spacecraft capillary forces dominate interfacial flow phenomena over unearthly large length scales. In current experiments aboard the International Space Station, partially open channels are being investigated to determine critical flow rate-limiting conditions above which the free surface collapses ingesting bubbles. Without the natural passive phase separating qualities of buoyancy, such ingested bubbles can in turn wreak havoc on the fluid transport systems of spacecraft. The flow channels under investigation represent geometric families of conduits with applications to liquid propellant acquisition, thermal fluids circulation, and water processing for life support. Present and near future experiments focus on transient phenomena and conduit asymmetries allowing capillary forces to replace the role of gravity to perform passive phase separations. Terrestrial applications are noted where enhanced transport via direct liquid-gas contact is desired.

This paper describes the experiments on flow rate limitation in open capillary channel flow that were performed on board the International Space Station in 2011. Free surfaces (gas-liquid interfaces) of open capillary channels balance the pressure difference between the flow of the liquid in the channel and the ambient gas by changing their curvature in accordance with the Young-Laplace equation. A critical flow rate of the liquid in the channel is exceeded when the curvature of the free surface is no longer able to balance the pressure difference and, consequently, the free surface collapses and gas is ingested into the liquid. This phenomenon was observed using the set-up described herein and critical flow rates are presented for steady flow over a range of channel lengths in three different cross-sectional geometries (parallel plates, groove, and wedge). All channel shapes displayed decreasing critical flow rates for increasing channel lengths. Bubble ingestion frequencies and bubble volumes are presented for gas ingestion at supercritical flow rates in the groove channel and in the wedge channel. At flow rates above the critical flow rate, bubble ingestion frequency appears to depend on the flow rate in a linear fashion, while bubble volume remains more or less constant. The performed experiments yield vast data sets on flow rate limitation in capillary channel flow in microgravity and can be utilised to validate numerical and analytical methods.

Large droplets and puddles jump spontaneously from sufficiently hydrophobic surfaces during routine drop tower tests. The simple low-cost passive mechanism can in turn be used as an experimental device to investigate dynamic droplet phenomena for drops up to 104 times larger than their normal terrestrial counterparts. We provide and/or confirm quick and qualitative design guides for such “drop shooters” as employed in drop tower tests including relationships to predict droplet ejection durations and velocities as functions of drop volume, surface texture, surface contour, wettability pattern, and fluid properties including contact angle. The latter is determined via profile image comparisons with numerical equilibrium interface computations. Water drop volumes of 0.04–400 ml at ejection speeds of −0.007–0.12 m/s are demonstrated herein. A sample application of the drop jump method is made to the classic problem of low-gravity phase change heat transfer for large impinging drops. Many other candidate problems might be identified by the reader.

Significant unplanned discoveries are becoming more commonplace in low-g fluids experiments aboard the ISS. Such 'science of opportunity' often takes place on the periphery of other experiments prompting further, though perhaps tangential, investigations. For example, during the routine liquid fill of a test cell for a separate experiment, rapidly compressed air bubbles are observed to drift along paths with vector components common to the residual acceleration. This is expected. However, the bubble velocities measured are up to three orders of magnitude higher than those attributable to buoyancy in the appropriate Stokes flow limit. We present quantitative data of the repeated phenomena that cannot be reconciled from a conventional theoretical perspective. We offer a candidate mechanism for the flow, while citing prior theoretical work that may have anticipated such phenomena. Such compressed bubble migration may lead to elegant methods of phase separation for certain fluid systems aboard spacecraft.

As an efficient program for studying capillary surfaces, Surface Evolver (SE) has a steep learning curve and is without a user-friendly graphical user interface. Here, we describe a new SE-based program, the Surface Evolver - Fluid Interface Tool (SE-FIT, pronounced ‘see-fit’). SE-FIT has been developed to dramatically broaden the application of SE and provide a user-friendly tool for studying the shape and stability of capillary surfaces. SE-FIT retains the core strengths of SE but adds a Windows-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) to interface with SE’s command-line functions. SE-FIT uses an intermediate text file layer to communicate with SE, automatically generating session logs while ensuring seamless communication between SE and the GUI. Groups of pre-defined geometric elements, such as spacecraft propellant tanks, have been created to enable rapid assembly of user-specified configurations. More generally, certain CAD/CAM drawing files generated from third-party software can be imported as well. For run-time processing, a general convergence algorithm has been developed to make the convergence computation a real routine. Features that enable batch process of parameter sweeps have been created. A real-time total energy variation graph and a histogram table are made available as convergence diagnostic tools. SE-FIT features utility tools including a parameter list table and a file explorer. A built-in text editor is included to facilitate editing and debugging of SE geometry and script files. Post-processing features include exporting data such as the container and interface geometry as an image file, and other file formats for further CFD simulations or rendering. A standalone SE data-file viewer enables real-time graphical viewing. These and other features make SE-FIT a unique software tool for rapidly calculating the shape and stability of capillary surfaces in complex geometric settings with an efficiency at least an order of magnitude greater than that of existing CFD programs.

Eleven handheld experiment units have been designed and fabricated for a second round of capillary fluidics experiments aboard the International Space Station (CFE-2). Four of the test containers were launched to ISS on STS 131 (April 5, 2007) and experiments are currently underway to investigate certain capillary flows in complex geometries including passive migration and phase separation in weakly three-dimensional containers and critical geometric wetting phenomena with disparate capillary length scales. Progress is reported for at least ten operations conducted to date. Parallel data reduction and numerical modeling show favorable agreement with the recently developed theory, which may be applied with greater confidence to spacecraft fluid system design. In other tests, highly repeatable critical wetting phenomena are pursued with nearly indistinguishable changes in geometry (i.e., vane angle rotations < 0.5o).

The equilibrium shape and location of fluid interfaces in spacecraft propellant tanks while in low-gravity is of interest to system designers, but can be challenging to predict. The propellant position can affect many aspects of the spacecraft such as the spacecraft center of mass, response to thruster firing due to sloshing, liquid acquisition, propellant mass gauging, and thermal control systems. We use Surface Evolver, a fluid interface energy minimizing algorithm, to investigate theoretical equilibrium liquid-vapor interfaces for spacecraft propellant tanks similar to those that have been considered for NASA's new class of Exploration vehicles. The choice of tank design parameters we consider are derived from the NASA Exploration Systems Architecture Study report. The local acceleration vector employed in the computations is determined by estimating low-Earth orbit (LEO) atmospheric drag effects and centrifugal forces due to a fixed spacecraft orientation with respect to the Earth or Moon, and rotisserie-type spacecraft rotation. Propellant/vapor interface positions are computed for the Earth Departure Stage and Altair lunar lander descent and ascent stage tanks for propellant loads applicable to LEO and low-lunar orbit. In some of the cases investigated the vapor ullage bubble is located at the drain end of the tank, where propellant management device hardware is often located.

The moving contact line is the line of intersection between two immiscible fluids as one displaces the other along a solid boundary (i.e. dynamic wetting). The displacement process has been the subject of a large amount of theoretical, numerical, and experimental research throughout the twentieth century [1], yet the fundamental mechanisms that govern contact line motion are not fully described. Theoretical study has dominated the published work on the moving contact line problem. This is due to the inability of previous experimental methods to elucidate flow behavior at small enough scales to differentiate between competing theories.

Low-gravity drop-tower experiments are carried out for an 'exotic' rotationally-symmetric container, which admits an entire continuum of distinct equilibrium symmetric capillary free surfaces. It is found that an initial equilibrium planer interface, a member of the continuum, will reorient toward a non-symmetric interface, as predicted by recent mathematical theory.