SCALING OF TWO-PHASE SYSTEMS ACROSS GRAVITY LEVELS THERE IS A DEFINED NEED FOR LONG TERM EARTH BASED TESTIN…

Public award description

SCALING OF TWO-PHASE SYSTEMS ACROSS GRAVITY LEVELS THERE IS A DEFINED NEED FOR LONG TERM EARTH BASED TESTING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND DEPLOYMENT OF TWO-PHASE FLOW SYSTEMS IN REDUCED-GRAVITY, INCLUDING LUNAR GRAVITY, CONDITIONS. THE PROPOSED STUDY INTENDS TO DEVELOP A SCALING METHODOLOGY TO MEET THIS REQUIREMENT. A HIERARCHICAL TWO-TIERED SCALING APPROACH WILL BE USED TO OBTAIN SCALING RELATIONS FOR AN ENTIRE SYSTEM (INTEGRAL SCALE), INDIVIDUAL COMPONENTS OF THE SYSTEM AND LOCAL PHENOMENA. THE FINAL PRODUCT OF THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL BE A RIGOROUS SCALING METHODOLOGY ALONG WITH IMPORTANT NON-DIMENSIONAL NUMBERS WHICH CAN BE USED FOR DEVELOPING EARTH-BASED SYSTEMS TO STUDY REDUCED-GRAVITY TWO-PHASE SYSTEMS AND/OR PHENOMENA. THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH WILL BE DEMONSTRATED IN PHASE I BY USING DATA AVAILABLE IN LITERATURE THAT HAS BEEN ACQUIRED IN REDUCED-GRAVITY AS WELL AS EARTH BASED CONDITIONS. AS PART OF PHASE II A SCALED EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY WILL BE DESIGNED AND CONFIRMATORY EXPERIMENTS PERFORMED.