Drop dynamics in spaceExperiments to study the dynamics of liquid drops are being planned to be performed in the weightless environment of Spacelab. The liquids will range from superfluid helium through ordinary liquid to molten metals and glasses. The experiments will be conducted in a chamber now being developed which utilizes the forces and torques produced by acoustic waves excited within the chamber. None of the currently available facilities (drop towers, sounding rockets, or zero-g aircraft flights) can provide a sustained weightless environment, since the resulting zero-g periods are from 3 sec to 5 min. Spaceflight, however, will provide weightlessness for periods of one week, or more, allowing truly laboratory-like experiments to be conducted on free liquid drops and bubbles. In this paper we discuss both the drop dynamics experiments proposed for Spacelab and the acoustic chamber: its operation and current testing for these and other experiments.
Document ID
19770053229
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Other - Collected Works
Authors
Wang, T. G. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Saffren, M. M. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Elleman, D. D. (California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena Calif., United States)