Measurement of the Quasistatic Component of Microaccelerations Using a Convection Sensor onboard a Satellite

The problem of the interpretation of measurements made by means of a convection sensor is considered. The sensor is a cubic chamber filled by a viscous fluid (gas). Fixed and unequal temperatures are maintained on two opposite sides of the cube; the other sides are perfect heat conductors. Two differential thermocouples are placed inside the chamber to measure the temperature difference at two pairs of fixed points. The sensor is mounted aboard the Earth's satellite. Mathematical models of various degrees of complexity are proposed which describe processes of heat and mass transfer under the action of a quasistatic component of microaccelerations. The results of mathematical simulation of the data of sensor thermocouples presenting a response to the real quasistatic component of microaccelerations which took place aboard the Mirstation are given. It is shown that under usual conditions of an orbital mission the sensor presents a linear low-frequency filter. By combining the data of several identical sensors, tightly arranged and oriented in a certain way, it is possible to measure low-frequency components of the angular acceleration of the satellite and linear microaccelerations at the point of the sensor position.     

Investigation of Thermal Convection and Low-Frequency Microgravity by the DACON Sensor aboard the MirOrbital Complex

The DACON instrument for studying the convection caused by low frequency microaccelerations aboard spacecraft is described. The convection sensor serves as a measuring element of this instrument. This is a cylindrical cavity filled with air, where two crossed differential thermocouples are located. The thermocouple junctions lay on two mutually perpendicular lines parallel to the bases of the cylinder and crossing at its axis. The distances from the junctions to this axis are equal. The lateral surface of the cylinder is thermally insulated, the difference of temperatures on its bases being kept constant. One of the tasks for the sensor is to prepare the data for checking the adequacy of mathematical models of fluid convection under weightlessness conditions and for obtaining quantitative characteristics of the microgravitational medium. The results of ground-based tests of the DACON instrument and the results of experiments with it aboard the Mirstation are presented.     

Effect of Microaccelerations on the Distribution of a Dopant in a Semiconductor Melt during Space Flight

The effect of residual microaccelerations on the distribution of a dopant in a semiconductor melt located in a heated closed cavity onboard an Earth-orbiting satellite is considered in the context of a model problem of thermal convection. The amplitude–frequency characteristics of the response of this distribution to the perturbing microaccelerations are obtained. It is demonstrated that the effect of low-frequency microaccelerations decreases when the frequency increases. A comparison is made of the macroscopic inhomogeneities of the dopant concentration due to the actual low-frequency (quasi-static) component of microaccelerations onboard different spacecraft: the orbital station Mir, the satellite Foton-11, a Space Shuttle orbiter, and the International Space Station. A substantial effect of the rotational motion of the spacecraft on the character of the time behavior of a macroscopic inhomogeneity is demonstrated.     

Experiments with the DAKON-M convection sensor

We have described an express technique for processing the results of experiments with a DAKON-M convection sensor on board the Service Module of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2011. The technique uses a certain rule to compare the sensor measurements with the calculated data on the quasistatic component of microacceleration at the point of installation. The sensor experiments have been conducted during shuttle docking and undocking, when low-frequency microaccelerations on the ISS were significant. The microaccelerations have been calculated using measurement data of the MAMS low-frequency accelerometer installed in the Lab module and the telemetry data on the ISS rotational motion. This has made it possible to convert the MAMS measurement data to the DAKON-M convection sensor installation point. A comparison of sensor readings with calculated microaccelerations has revealed fairly good agreement between them.     

Mathematical Modeling of Convection in the DACON Sensor under Conditions of Real Space Flight

A mathematical model of the operation of the sensor of convection under ground and space conditions is described, and the results of modeling are compared to experimental data. A good agreement of the model and experiment is obtained for ground conditions. The sensor operation under conditions of a space flight is simulated using actual microaccelerations that took place onboard the Mirstation. Good sensitivity of the sensor to the measured components of acceleration is demonstrated. The results of simulation are compared to the results of space experiments carried out with the DACON instrument onboard the Mirstation.     

Some Features of Vibrational Perturbations onboard the MirOrbital Station

A number of scientific and technical experiments were carried out and are still being carried out onboard the Mirorbital station in various fields: physics of fluids, space materials study, astrophysics, biotechnology, and so on. The quality and reliability of space experiments are essentially dependent on a knowledge of real microgravitational situation onboard a satellite, which essentially depends on vibrational perturbations. A lot of vibration processes studies have been done up to now on the Mirstation in the following lines of research: control of dynamic and exploitation regimes when carrying out biotechnological and technological experiments; determination of the contribution of different onboard systems and mechanisms to the total vibration perturbations power; and investigation of distributions of microacceleration levels and dynamics of vibration processes in different modules and segments of the orbital station. This paper presents the results of the analysis of vibration perturbations produced by some standard onboard Mirstation systems in a configuration when the KVANT-2 and KRISTALL modules were arranged along the yaw axis of the mainframe. It is shown that due to strong requirements for tolerable levels of the microaccelerations onboard the International Space Station (ISS), the investigations of microgravitational situation, as an integral part of the technological environment, now have a high priority.     

Study of microaccelerations onboard the <Emphasis Type="Italic">International Space Station</Emphasis> with the DAKON-M convection sensor

The results of experiments with the DAKON-M convection sensor onboard the Russian orbital segment of the International Space Station are described. A comparison of the sensor measurements with the results of calculation of the quasistatic microacceleration component at the point of installation is made. For this comparison we have used three measurement intervals of the experiments in 2009, during which spacecraft were docked with the station, undocked from it, and actuation of jet engines of the attitude control system took place. When calculating microacceleration, we use the measurement data of the low-frequency MAMS accelerometer, installed on the American segment, and the telemetry data on the ISS rotational motion. This information allowed one to convert the MAMS measurements to the point of installation of the DAKON-M convection sensor. A comparison of sensor measurements with calculated microaccelerations showed sufficiently accurate coincidence between the calculated and measured data.     

Microperturbations on the <Emphasis Type="Italic">International Space Station</Emphasis> during physical exercises of the crew

The results of a preliminary analysis of microperturbations on the International Space Station during physical exercises of the crew are presented. The goal of this paper is to identify the parameters of perturbations when physical exercises are performed. The results of measurements by sensors of microaccelerations of both Russian and American segments during physical exercises in the service module of the Russian segment are analyzed.     

低温流体闪蒸喷雾研究

为了研究低温流体闪蒸喷雾特性,建立了低温流体闪蒸计算模型,并通过试验进行了验证。在欧拉-拉格朗日框架下采用CFD-DPM方法模拟了闪蒸过程的气-液两相流场。研究表明,在闪蒸喷雾形态和温度分布特性方面,数值模拟与试验结果吻合。低温流体喷入低压环境后,在喷嘴出口附近便发生剧烈的闪蒸现象,呈现出巨大的喷雾角,并且喷雾温度急剧下降至环境压力对应的饱和温度;在喷嘴出口附近区域(x/d～40),过热闪蒸占据绝对主导地位,其蒸发速率高出其他换热2个数量级,随着喷雾液滴运动至流场下游,对流换热与热传导逐渐占据主导地位。闪蒸带来的强烈换热导致喷嘴附近可能会发生复杂的气-液-固相变,将会对发动机高空可靠点火带来风险。     

Heat transfer of thermocapillary convection in a two-layered fluid system under the influence of magnetic field

Heat transfer of a two-layer fluid system has been of great importance in a variety of industrial applications. For example, the phenomena of immiscible fluids can be found in materials processing and heat exchangers. Typically in solidification from a melt, the convective motion is the dominant factor that affects the uniformity of material properties. In the layered flow, thermocapillary forces can come into an important play, which was first emphasized by a previous investigator in 1958. Under extraterrestrial environments without gravity, thermocapillary effects can be a more dominant factor, which alters material properties in processing. Control and optimization of heat transfer in an immiscible fluid system need complete understanding of the flow phenomena that can be induced by surface tension at a fluid interface. The present work is focused on understanding of the magnetic field effects on thermocapillary convection, in order to optimize material processing. That is, it involves the study of the complicated phenomena to alter the flow motion in crystal growth. In this effort, the Marangoni convection in a cavity with differentially heated sidewalls is investigated with and without the influence of a magnetic field. As a first step, numerical analyzes are performed, by thoroughly investigating influences of all pertinent physical parameters. Experiments are then conducted, with preliminary results, for comparison with the numerical analyzes.     

Analysis of Low-Frequency Microaccelerations onboard the Foton-11Satellite

The method and the results of investigating the low-frequency component of microaccelerations onboard the Foton-11satellite are presented. The investigation was based on the processing of data of the angular velocity measurements made by the German system QSAM, as well as the data of measurements of microaccelerations performed by the QSAM system and by the French accelerometer BETA. The processing was carried out in the following manner. A low-frequency (frequencies less than 0.01 Hz) component was selected from the data of measurements of each component of the angular velocity vector or of the microacceleration, and an approximation was constructed of the obtained vector function by a similar function that was calculated along the solutions to the differential equations of motion of the satellite with respect to its center of mass. The construction was carried out by the least squares method. The initial conditions of the satellite motion, its aerodynamic parameters, and constant biases in the measurement data were used as fitting parameters. The time intervals on which the approximation was constructed were from one to five hours long. The processing of the measurements performed with three different instruments produced sufficiently close results. It turned out to be that the rotational motion of the satellite during nearly the entire flight was close to the regular Eulerian precession of the axially symmetric rigid body. The angular velocity of the satellite with respect to its longitudinal axis was about 1 deg/s, while the projection of the angular velocity onto the plane perpendicular to this axis had an absolute value of about 0.2 deg/s. The magnitude of the quasistatic component of microaccelerations in the locations of the accelerometers QSAM and BETA did not exceed 5 × 10^–5–10^–4m/s²for the considered motion of the satellite.     

The Influence of Arrangement of Growth Setups onboard a Spacecraft on Microgravity Conditions of Experiments: An Example of Floating Zone Melting of InSb:Te onboard the Foton-3 Satellite

The results of experiments on the growth of InSb:Te by the floating zone melting in the Zona-4 setup during a flight of the Foton-3 satellite are discussed in comparison with the data on the microgravity situation typical for satellites of this type. When analyzing inhomogeneities in the crystals obtained, we reveal the frequencies corresponding to periodical variations of the impurity channel position (the facet effect), to interleaving of packs in which the growth layers are grouped, and to location of subgroups of the growth layers inside the packs. These frequencies are close to those discovered during measurements of low-frequency (quasistationary) microaccelerations (g) onboard the spacecraft Foton-8, Foton-10, Foton-11, and Foton-12. Calculated values of g at the place where the Zona-4 setup is installed confirm the possibility of impact of such g on the heat and mass transfer in the melt.     

组合发动机微细通道氦加热器设计与流动换热

氦加热器是预冷组合发动机中重要的换热器之一,其原理是利用燃气燃烧的热量提高氦气做功能力,进而提升整个循环系统运行效率。研究中首先设计了蛇形管式、瓦片式、辐射式三种微细通道氦加热器。其次,基于FLUENT15.0软件对微细通道氦加热器管内外的对流换热系数和流动阻力进行了研究。对比模拟结果和经典关联式的计算结果,确定了适用于微细通道氦加热器管内外换热和流阻的关联式。结果表明:对于管内流动换热,经典关联式预测准确,平均误差小于8%。对于管外流动换热,经典关联式对流阻的预测依然准确,但是对换热系数的预测有较大偏差,最大偏差接近50%。基于数值模拟结果拟合了新的微细通道氦加热器管外对流换热关联式,平均误差小于5%。此外,对比分析发现蛇形管式微细通道氦加热器对流换热系数最大,综合性能最优。     

Non-intrusive,three-dimensional temperature and composition measurements inside fluid cells in microgravity using a confocal holography microscope

Application of a confocal scanning laser holography (CSLH) microscope to the study of fluid flow in a microgravity environment is described herein. This microscope offers a new, non-intrusive means to determine three-dimensional density gradients within solid objects, fluids, and plasmas, including flames. The index-of-refraction is determined from the phase measurements of the microscope, which is a function of the object temperature and composition. The object being studied is a fluid-cell chamber, which is heated and cooled on opposing walls to produce a steady-state fluid flow due to convection and heat transfer. The holograms are created from the interference of a “known” reference beam with an “unknown” object beam. A three-dimensional amplitude and phase image of the object is produced by the reconstruction of many holograms, where each hologram represents a scanned point inside the object.     

Influence of Microaccelerations on the Impurity Distribution in the InSb:Te Crystals Grown in Orbital Flights by the Method of Floating Zone Melting

The periodicity of the structure of impurity heterogeneities in the longitudinal section of an indium antimonide monocrystal doped by tellurium (InSb:Te) is investigated. The monocrystal was grown by the method of floating zone melting onboard the Foton-3 satellite. It is shown that the frequencies of harmonic components of heterogeneities converted into the time region coincide with frequencies of microaccelerations in the range 0–0.005 Hz arising onboard the Foton satellites. This fact confirms the hypothesis stated previously that residual microaccelerations onboard the satellite were the cause of occurrence of indicated periodicities.     

Surface temperature distribution along a thin liquid layer due to thermocapillary convection

The surface temperature distributions due to thermocapillary convections in a thin liquid layer with heat fluxes imposed on the free surface are investigated. The nondimensional analysis predicts that, when convection is important, the characteristic length scale in the flow direction L, and the characteristic temperature difference ΔT₀, can be represented by and , respectively, where L_R and ΔT_T are the reference scales used in the conduction-dominant situations with A denoting the aspect ratio and Ma the Marangoni number. Having had L and ΔT₀ defined, the global surface-temperature gradient ( ), the global thermocapillary driving-force, and other interesting features can then be readily determined. Finally, numerical calculations involving a Gaussian heat flux distribution are presented to justify these two relations.     

Realization of modes of satellite attitude motion with a small level of microaccelerations using electromechanical executive devices

Quasi-static microaccelerations are estimated for a satellite specially designed to perform space experiments in the field of microgravity. Three modes of attitude motion of the spacecraft are considered: passive gravitational orientation, orbital orientation, and semi-passive gravitational orientation. In these modes the lengthwise axis of the satellite is directed along the local vertical, while solar arrays lie in the orbit plane. The second and third modes are maintained using electromechanical executive devices: flywheel engines or gyrodynes. Estimations of residual microaccelerations are performed with the help of mathematical modeling of satellite’s attitude motion under the action of gravitational and aerodynamic moments, as well as the moment produced by the gyro system. It is demonstrated that all modes ensure rather low level of quasi-static microaccelerations on the satellite and provide for a fairly narrow region of variation for the vector of residual microacceleration. The semi-passive gravitational orientation ensures also a limited proper angular momentum of the gyro system.     

Gravitational Sensitivity of Solutions–Melts at the Crystallization of Two-Phase InSb–InBi Alloys under Space Conditions

Analyzing the results of space and ground-based experiments carried out in the Baikov Institute of Metallurgy and Materials Science to study the processes of the melting and crystallization of two-phase InSb–InBi alloys of an indium–antimony–bismuth (In–Sb– Bi) triple system, we have demonstrated the gravitational sensitivity of the InSb-based solution– melt. It manifests itself as a certain asymmetry of the boundary of the dissolution of the InSb ingot by the InSb–InBi melt and heterogeneity of the melt along this boundary depending on the magnitude and direction of the gravity force acceleration gin the range (1–10^–3–10^–5)g ₀, where g ₀is the acceleration of the gravity force on Earth. For the first time, it is established in the experiments under analysis that the homogeneity of melts of a complex composition with components of various densities can be reached only at magnitudes of quasistationary (residual) microaccelerations g< 10^–6 g ₀.     

高空飞行环境中液体运载火箭底部热环境研究

采用数值模拟和飞行测试验证相结合的方法对液体运载火箭高空对流/辐射耦合换热问题开展系统深入研究。基于燃气多组分输运Navier-Stokes方程、热辐射方程、Realizable k-ε两方程湍流模型，建立了高空含自由流的运载火箭燃气喷流流动模型。辐射模型采用离散坐标法(DOM)，空间离散采用二阶迎风TVD格式，对多个典型飞行高度火箭底部热流进行大型并行计算，将数值结果与试验数据进行广泛对比，验证了计算模型的精度和有效性。数值研究表明，火箭底部辐射热流在刚起飞阶段达到最大值，随着飞行高度上升，辐射热流逐渐降低，火箭底部对流热流表现为先升高后降低的趋势，并在20 km高空达到峰值。本文的预测分析方法对液体运载火箭底部热防护设计具有重要的理论意义和工程应用价值。