Combustion, Complex Fluids, and Fluid Physics Experiments on the ISS
Motil, Brian, Urban, David
Experiments: ACME, BASS, FLEX, FLEX-2, SAME, SLICE, SPICE
From the very early days of human spaceflight, NASA has been conducting experiments in space to understand the effect of weightlessness on physical and chemically reacting systems. NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland, Ohio has been at the forefront of this research looking at both fundamental studies in microgravity as well as experiments targeted at reducing the risks to long duration human missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond. In the current International Space Station (ISS) era, we now have an orbiting laboratory that provides the highly desired condition of long-duration microgravity. This allows continuous and interactive research similar to Earth-based laboratories. Because of these capabilities, the ISS is an indispensible laboratory for low gravity research. NASA GRC has been actively involved in developing and operating facilities and experiments on the ISS since the beginning of a permanent human presence on November 2, 2000. As the lead Center for combustion, complex fluids, and fluid physics; GRC has led the successful implementation of the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) and the Fluids Integrated Rack (FIR) as well as the continued use of other facilities on the ISS. These facilities have supported combustion experiments in fundamental droplet combustion; fire detection; fire extinguishment; soot phenomena; flame liftoff and stability; and material flammability. The fluids experiments have studied capillary flow; magneto-rheological fluids; colloidal systems; extensional rheology; pool and nucleate boiling phenomena. In this paper, we provide an overview of the experiments conducted on the ISS over the past 12 years.
Test conditions.
Extracted from the paper by AI · “Verified” means a person checked it
| Fuel | O₂ | Pressure | Airflow | Sensors | Source | AI conf. | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| solid | — | — | variable | — | p. 3 | 95% | Pending |
| droplet 1 to 5 mm (either free-floating or fiber-supported) |
up to 40 percent | 0 to 3 atm | — | — | p. 2 | 95% | Pending |
| gas-jet | — | — | laminar, axisymmetric | — | p. 2 | 95% | Pending |
| — | — | — | — | — | p. 2 | 95% | Pending |
Findings.
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01
BASS results contribute to the limited database of solid combustion in microgravity and guide strategies for extinguishing accidental fires.
Suppression · p. 3 · AI confidence 95% · Reported · Pending
“BASS results contribute to the limited database of solid combustion in microgravity. In addition, BASS will guide combustion computational models used in the design of fire detection and suppression systems in microgravity and on Earth.”
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02
BASS tests the hypothesis that materials in microgravity with adequate ventilation burn as well or better than in normal gravity.
Other · p. 3 · AI confidence 95% · Reported · Pending
“BASS tests the hypothesis that materials in micro-gravity, with adequate ventilation, burn as well if not better than the same material in normal gravity with other conditions being identical (pressure, oxygen concentration, temperature, etc.).”
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03
External radiative heat flux can cause materials to ignite and spread faster, while radiative heat transfer loss reduces flammability.
Prevention · p. 3 · AI confidence 90% · Reported · Pending
“Radiant heat transfer was shown to substantially loss reduces the flammability, but an external radiative heat flux can cause materials to ignite and spread faster.”
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04
Soot control remains one of the major unsolved problems in combustion.
Other · p. 2 · AI confidence 95% · Reported · Pending
“Soot control remains one of the major unsolved prob-lems in combustion.”