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Micrometric ripples in a capillary tube, the effect of microgravity

  • Electronics Cooling/Microchannels And Minichannels
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Abstract

The oscillatory motion of a fluid carrying micron-sized particles inside a capillary tube is investigated experimentally in standard gravity condition. It is found that initially uniformly distributed particles can segregate and accumulate to form regularly spaced micron-sized particle clusters. The wavelength of the micro clusters is compared to data for macro-scale sand-ripple patterns and found to obey the same universal scaling as these. A physical and dimensional analysis is performed that confirms the universality of the experimentally observed scaling. The effect of gravity can therefore be discussed on the basis of this universal scaling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Mécanique de Lille UMR CNRS 8107, Université des sciences et technologies de Lille Bd Paul Langevin, 59655, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    Alain Merlen & Farzam Zoueshtiagh

  2. Fluid Dynamics Research Centre, School of Engineering, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL, Coventry, United Kingdom

    Peter J. Thomas

  3. Institut d’Electronique et de Micro electronique et Nanotechnologie UMR, CNRS 8520, Avenue Poincaré, 59652, Villeneuve d’Ascq, France

    Vincent Thomy

Authors
  1. Alain Merlen
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  2. Farzam Zoueshtiagh
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  3. Peter J. Thomas
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  4. Vincent Thomy
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alain Merlen.

Additional information

Paper was presented on the Second International Topical Team Workshop on TWO-PHASE SYSTEMS FOR GROUND AND SPACE APPLICATIONS October 26–28, 2007, Kyoto, Japan.

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Merlen, A., Zoueshtiagh, F., Thomas, P.J. et al. Micrometric ripples in a capillary tube, the effect of microgravity. Microgravity Sci. Technol 19, 60–61 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915751

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915751

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