Double-helical containment is a novel approach to open containment in microgravity (or at microscale). In contrast to common forms, such as liquid bridges, there is no length restriction on properly designed double-helical containers. Double-helical containers can be drained to zero volume, an uncommon feature in microgravity; near-complete drainage is a key feature for any practically useful container. Th at double-helical containers are open and tubular makes possible a broad range of applications which rely on accessible fluids or fluid-fluid contact processes.The base case of symmetric supports (separation angle 180°) is considered in terms of symmetric volumes as well as asymmetric helicatenoid volumes. Th e distinct cases are then related by perturbing the angle of separation. Helicatenoid volumes may combine to form a dual helicatenoid volume, interesting in that it permits multiphase tube-like geometries.Double-helical behaviours such as drainability vanish at a critical separation angle of 246.48°. With larger separation angles, the dominance of the longer-span interface yields single-helical behaviour. Th e most robust double-helical containers are therefore those with separation angles between about 210° and 240°. Experimental results verify stability to zero volume.
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