Floating zone stability (exp. 1-ES-331)

An experiment on floating liquid zones to be performed in the first Spacelab flight is presented. In this experiment, a liquid bridge is to be placed between two parallel coaxial disks (in the Fluid Physics Module) and subjected to disturbances in order to check the theoretical predictions about its stability limits and behavior under mechanical inputs (stretching of the zone, filling or removing the liquid, axial vibration, rotation, disalignment, etc.). Several aspects of the research are discussed, such as the relevance of the study, theoretical predictions of the liquid behavior regarding the floating zone stability limits and the expected response to vibrational and rotational disturbances, and ground support experiments using the Plateau technique or the small scale simulation. Instrumental aspects of the experiment include utilization of the Fluid Physics Module and post flight data analysis.