LIQUIDS IN MICROGRAVITY

摘要

In this work we present experimental results obtained at the 7th ESA Student Parabolic Flight Campaign 2004 that aim to achieve a better understanding of the behaviour of liquid water in a low gravity environment, namely in spreading and infiltration phenomena. For that purpose, we conducted three complementary experiments: in one, we spread a liquid along different surfaces, in other we observed how liquids infiltrate through glass spheres and in a last one, we saw how liquids behave when flowing along straws. The results were analysed and they show that the liquid behaviour is strongly affected by uncontrolled aspects related to gravity fluctuations, even though it was possible to infer particular behaviour patterns from the observations. These results could find application in the design of devices and equipment for use in low-gravity environments.