Configurational stability of fluid systems in near-weightlessness
Abstract
If a liquid and its vapor are present in a closed, isothermal container and are initially subjected to normal gravitational intensity before the gravitational intensity is reduced, the Bond number criterion claims that the system will remain in the initial configuration unless the gravitational intensity is reduced to a negative value. We report a thermodynamic analysis of the stability of such a system that indicates the initial configuration becomes metastable at negligible, but positive-g. The results of a set of experiments performed on an aircraft flying Keplarian parabolas are found to support the predictions from thermodynamics.
- Publication:
-
Fluid Mechanics Phenomena in Microgravity; ASME Winter Annual Meeting
- Pub Date:
- 1992
- Bibcode:
- 1992asme.meet..111W
- Keywords:
-
- Fluid Dynamics;
- Liquid-Vapor Interfaces;
- Mathematical Models;
- Microgravity;
- Stability;
- Cylindrical Chambers;
- Gravitational Effects;
- Metastable State;
- Thermodynamic Properties;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer