Flow of a water jet into vacuum

At certain intervals excess water has to be dumped into space overboard of the Spacelab cabin. For the development of a useful nozzle the behaviour of a water jet flowing into vacuum was investigated experimentally and theoretical interpretations of the flow phenomena which were found are given. The influence of parameters like the shape of the nozzle, the temperature and the gas content of water were studied. At certain test conditions, the jet leaves the nozzle exit in bundled form and ends abruptly bursting into droplets and ice-particles. The “bursting”-mechanism is explained by a sudden boiling of the water in the jet causing the growth of vapor bubbles decomposing the jet. The formation of vapor bubbles is initiated by a superheating of the water of the jet caused by a sudden pressure drop and a cooling at the surface of the jet. The expansion of vapor bubbles in the jet is retarded by surface tension forces which results in a relaxation time for the bursting of the jet. The vapor flow in radial directions of the jet is approximately described by a plane radial source flow. The measurement of the pitot-pressure radially to the jet proves that the vapor flow is supersonic.