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Transient Capillary Channel Flow Stability

Experiments on the International Space Station

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Abstract

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.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the support provided by the NASA employees at Marshall Space Flight Centre. We thank NASA astronauts Scott Kelly, Catherine Coleman, and Mike Fossum, 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. And we thank Lars Kiewidt, R. Jenson, and W. Blackmore for the help during the CCF experiment.

This experiment is realized in cooperation between NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The project is supported by the DLR through funds from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) under grant numbers 50WM0535/0845/1145.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. European Commission, Joint Research Centre, 1755, ZG, Petten, The Netherlands

    Aleksander Grah

  2. University of Bremen, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    Peter J. Canfield, Przemyslaw M. Bronowicki & Michael E. Dreyer

  3. Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97207, USA

    Yongkang Chen & Mark M. Weislogel

Authors
  1. Aleksander Grah
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  2. Peter J. Canfield
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  3. Przemyslaw M. Bronowicki
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  4. Michael E. Dreyer
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  5. Yongkang Chen
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  6. Mark M. Weislogel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael E. Dreyer.

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Grah, A., Canfield, P.J., Bronowicki, P.M. et al. Transient Capillary Channel Flow Stability. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 26, 385–396 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-014-9403-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-014-9403-z

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