THREE DIMENSIONAL MODELLING OF THERMODIFFUSION EXPERIMENT FOR A TERNARY MIXTURE ONBOARD FOTON

摘要

The phenomenon of mass flux in a mixture due to a temperature gradient is known as the Soret effect. Accurate experimental and theoretical models are needed for its better understanding and quantification for effective characterisation of situations involving coupled processes as in hydrocarbon reservoirs. This requires precise knowledge of the transport coefficients particularly the Fick and Soret diffusion coefficients. We have investigated the effect of residual-g and (very) low-frequency g-jitters encountered onboard spacecraft FOTON on mass-thermo-fluid dynamics in the presence of Soret effect. Results revealed that the diffusion process is slightly affected by the g-jitter on board the FOTON platform, which indicates that FOTON is a good platform to conduct near perfect microgravity environment.