MICROGRAVITY SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS

Internal Flows in a Free Drop

Objective: Surface tension is the property of a liquid's surface that -- like a skin -- holds it together. Investigators want to measure the internal fluid flows induced by the acoustic field and areas of different temperature on the surfaces of the drops. Researchers want to measure the surface tension of the drops. This investigation uses acoustic energy or sound to remotely control the position and motion of free-floating drops of liquid in the experiment facility.

Findings may have applications for improving manufacturing processes on Earth and in space by providing new techniques for accurately measuring the properties of a liquid. This will allow manufacturers to better predict the behavior of a liquid during processing and consequently, control the process to produce materials with more desirable properties. Results of this experiment may be relevant to many processes in chemical manufacturing industries such as the petroleum, cosmetics and food sciences industries.

Description: Free, single drops will be deployed in the Microgravity Glovebox experiment facility, then positioned and manipulated using sound waves. Droplets will be heated unevenly to cause fluid flow within the droplets. Tracer particles in the drops will allow researchers to see and record the movement of the drops and internal flows at various temperatures.