The “Thermocapillary-based control of a free surface in microgravity” experiment

Sánchez, P.; Martínez, Úrsula; Gligor, D.; Torres, I.; Plaza, J.; Ezquerro, J.M.

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2023.01.032

Cited by 10 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 64 publications

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“…The efficacy of thermocapillary convection and complementary strategies like nanoparticles for improving PCM performance in microgravity environments will be directly evaluated by the "Effect of Marangoni Convection on Heat Transfer in Phase Change Materials" (MarPCM) project, which is planned for implementation by the European Space Agency (ESA) on the International Space Station (ISS) [38,39]. A range of numerical investigations have recently been conducted in support of this anticipated experiment and the questions it addresses, including an analysis of dynamical modes and their effect on heat transport [18][19][20]31], melting with combined gravitational and thermocapillary convection [40,41], PCM melting in a liquid bridge configuration in microgravity [27,28,37,42,43], the influence of surface heat exchange [30,44,37], the effect of nanoparticles [45], and the coupling between thermocapillary flows and sloshing [46][47][48][49][50].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-Dimensional Effects During Thermocapillary-Driven Melting of Pcms in Cuboidal Containers in Microgravity

Šeta,

Salgado Sanchez,

Dubert

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-Dimensional Effects During Thermocapillary-Driven Melting of Pcms in Cuboidal Containers in Microgravity

Šeta,

Salgado Sanchez,

Dubert

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Profiles of free Surfaces in Revolved Containers Under Microgravity

Chen,

Duan,

et al. 2024

Microgravity Sci. Technol.

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Nowadays a propellant residual gauging method based on the thermal response of the tanks' wall is developed. And the liquid distribution and meniscus height have great effects on the thermal response. Profiles of liquid free surfaces in revolved containers under microgravity are studied through theoretical analysis and numerical simulation in this paper. The analytical formula for the static profile of the liquid surface in the spherical tank is established. It shows that the profile is a section of a circle cut off by the tank wall. For given the geometry of the tank, liquid volume and contact angle, the profile of the free surfaces under microgravity can be obtained by using the Shooting method based on the theoretical model. Numerical simulation is carried out with the Volume of Fluid method, and it is verified that the static profiles at different contact angles and liquid filling rates fit the theoretical descriptions. It is concluded that the meniscus height increases slowly as the filling rate increases, and the smaller the contact angle, the more obvious this trend. Then the theory is extended to the tanks of arbitrary shapes, and the critical position of the profile is derived. Below the critical position the propellant may accumulate in some corners or pits, which makes it unable to be fully utilized. The critical position is related to the shape of the tank and the contact angle. This research is of great value for the prediction of the static profiles of liquid surfaces in tanks and the propellant residual gauging.

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Controlling a Free Surface With Thermocapillary Flows and Vibrations in Microgravity

Plaza,

Gligor,

Salgado Sánchez

et al. 2024

Microgravity Sci. Technol.

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Fluid manipulation and control is crucial for space exploration. Motivated by the “Thermocapillary-based control of a free surface in microgravity" (ThermoSlosh) experiment (Salgado Sánchez et al. in Acta Astronautica 205:57–67, 2023), we conduct here a detailed numerical analysis of interfacial dynamics in a two-dimensional cylindrical cell, half-filled with different silicone oils or a fluorinert, and subjected to thermal forcing and vibrations. The effect on the free surface dynamics of the applied temperature difference, vibrational amplitude, fluid viscosity, and contact angle is analyzed; both static and dynamic contact angle models are considered. Results strongly suggest that thermocapillary flows can be used to control the interface orientation within the cell, while supplemental vibrations can be added to increase the system responsiveness. This control can be further improved by using classical proportional-integral-derivative feedback to adjust the cell boundary temperatures in real-time. The proportional and derivative gains of the controller can be selected to optimize the stabilization time and/or energy cost, while the integral contribution is effective in reducing the steady-state error. Overall, the present analysis highlights the potential of using the thermocapillary effect for fluid management in reduced gravity, and evaluates different types of experimental tests that can be executed in the frame of the ThermoSlosh microgravity project.

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The “Thermocapillary-based control of a free surface in microgravity” experiment

Cited by 10 publications

References 64 publications

Three-Dimensional Effects During Thermocapillary-Driven Melting of Pcms in Cuboidal Containers in Microgravity

Three-Dimensional Effects During Thermocapillary-Driven Melting of Pcms in Cuboidal Containers in Microgravity

Profiles of free Surfaces in Revolved Containers Under Microgravity

Controlling a Free Surface With Thermocapillary Flows and Vibrations in Microgravity

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