Design of a Shuttle air and water prefilter for reduced gravity operation

The first design concept of the Space Shuttle humidity separator prefilter, developed to remove debris from the air/water stream which flows from the cabin condensing heat exchanger to the humidity separator, was flown on STS-40 in June 1991. This paper discusses the design of the first prefilter (which was found not to pass water at a constant rate, resulting in a tendency to slug the humidity separator) and explains the on-orbit performance of the prefilter. The redesigned prefilter (made using the results of the flight test of the first prefilter) is described, with particular attention given to the features which would allow successful reduced gravity operation.