A METHOD TO MEASURE DROP SIZES IN GAS CIRCULATION PIPELINES OF MANNED SPACECRAFT

摘要

Environmental control and life support system is a very complicated and important sub-system of manned spacecraft, which is a significant symbol for manned spacecraft. This system is directly related to astronauts' health and life safety, but also related to completing space mission. Especially, the water drops in the gas circulation pipelines need to be condensed and recycled. Also, it is necessary to detect the effect of recycling and monitor the operating status of the equipment. This article introduces a method to measure the water drop sizes in the gas circulation system based on optical theory. In this method, laser illuminating is employed and the shape of the beam is changed to be as a sheet. When the drops go vertically through the illuminating area, the light intensity is changed. Then, the changed value is detected and calculated from the power attenuation. This method is easy to be conducted and the algorithm is simple and stable, which is suitable for aerospace application.