National Space Development Agency of Japan Systems Engineering Department, Office of Research & Development
National Space Development Agency of Japan Systems Engineering Department, Office of Research & Development
National Space Development Agency of Japan Space Experiment Group
Toshiba Corporation
Toshiba Corporation
出版者
宇宙開発事業団
出版者（英）
National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)
Details of thermally driven flow experiments, performed last July as a mission of IML-2 (Second International Microgravity Laboratory), are reported mainly from an engineering viewpoint. Described in this connection is a thermal accumulator model, named TDFU (Thermally Driven Flow Unit); which was designed and fabricated for the experiments. A way of liquid transfer in TDFU is depicted in the figure for comprehension of operational principles. Hardware design specifications, the process of experiments, and imposed vibrational conditions are stated and then are summarized in the tables. Photographs including some critical scenes are presented to demonstrate that liquid/vapor phase separation, liquid positioning, and liquid transfer were satisfactorily done in TDFU aboard space shuttle. Experimental results show that the observed liquid travel distance was such as theoretically estimated and that the measured vessel temperatures were similar to predicted ones. A conclusion of technical importance is thus drawn that thermally driven flows are instrumental in fluid management under microgravities. Also presented are numerical results of simulation analyses of fluid behaviors in a TDFU vessel in preflight experiments aboard the airplane.
微小重力下での熱駆動流の研究(CAPILLARY)
00271019.pdf
(1.77MB)
