This paper provides a summary of the experimental, analytical, and numerical results of the Capillary Flow Experiment (CFE) performed aboard International Space Station (ISS) from Increment 9 (beginning August, 2004) through Increment 16 (ending December, 2007), with 19 operations by 7 astronauts including: M. Fincke, W. McArthur, J. Williams, S. Williams, M. Lopez-Alegria, C. Anderson, and P. Whitson. CFE consists of 6 approximately 1 to 2kg experiment units designed to probe certain capillary phenomena of fundamental and applied importance, such as capillary flow in complex containers, critical wetting in discontinuous structures, and large length scale contact line dynamics. Highly quantitative video images from the simply performed flight experiments provide immediate confirmation of the usefulness of current analytical design tools, as well as provide guidance to the development of new ones. A brief review of the experiments and procedures is provided before reporting a selection of experimental results and comparisons with both analytic and numerical predictions. The products of the work include design tools for modeling capillary interface dynamics relevant to spacecraft engineering systems.
展开▼
