Abstract
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.
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Notes
\({Re} = \bar{u}_0 D_h \nu^{-1},\) where \(\bar{u}_0\) is the mean velocity at the inlet of the TC and ν is the kinematic viscosity of the liquid. D h is the hydraulic diameter with D h = 4A 0/P and P is the wetted perimeter.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the NASA employees at Marshall Space Flight Centre and thank especially the MSG team. We thank NASA astronauts Scott Kelly, Catherine Coleman, and Mike Fossom, who installed and removed the experiment hardware on board the ISS. We also acknowledge the technical staff at Astrium for manufacturing the experiment hardware and for technical support during the experiments. The German research team was selected for award in NASA Research Announcement NRA-94-OLMSA-05 and is currently supported financially by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) via the German Aerospace Center (DLR) under grant number 50WM0535/0845/1145. The U.S. research team was selected for award in NASA Research Announcement Microgravity Fluid Physics: Research and Flight Experiment Opportunities (NRA-98-HEDS-03) and is currently supported in part under NASA cooperative agreement NNX12AO47A.
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Dedicated to Wade H. Stevens († 2011), CCF Operations Lead at NASA
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Canfield, P.J., Bronowicki, P.M., Chen, Y. et al. The capillary channel flow experiments on the International Space Station: experiment set-up and first results. Exp Fluids 54, 1519 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-013-1519-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-013-1519-1