Experiment for investigation of the dynamic behaviour of fluid in a surface tension tank under microgravity condition

A tank/fluid dynamic experiment will be executed in a surface tension tank under microgravity conditions during a 1983-1984 Space Shuttle flight. The experiment will be conducted to determine the low-gravity fluid dynamic effects (liquid sloshing) resulting from excitations. The absolute pressures at the tank inner wall, the tank and tank/fluid system orthogonal acceleration components, and the forces generated by the sloshing fluid and/or the tank/fluid system are evaluated first in a small tank experiment and used to generate an equivalent mechanical model. Results from the analysis showed that the amount of sloshing liquid for low-gravity sloshing is less than for high-gravity sloshing; a fundamental mode ratio, sloshing fluid/total fluid, of 1/23 under zero-gravity conditions was obtained. The results of a zero-gravity aircraft flight to study the orientation and stabilization time of a fluid after acceleration impulses are then presented. Results showed that a change in the acceleration level of less than 0.03 g has no influence on the fluid configuration, whereas for a change = 0.2 g, the fluid directly follows the disturbance. An orientation time of 0.5 sec was obtained, which corresponds with the derived realistic tank time of 8.5 sec.