Microgravity Fluid Mechanics and
Heat Transfer Computation

Gary Cox and Oliver Pozo
Project Advisors: Dr. G.F. Carey and Dr. R.O. Stearman
Project Assistants: Bill Barth, Alexandre Aardelea, Susan Buck
Facilities: CFDLab, Dept. Aerospace Engineering, UT Austin




           In a microgravity environment, such as the International Space Station, where the effects of gravity are greatly reduced, scientists can conduct research that achieves results not possible in ground-based laboratories. Computer simulation can help understand the basic fluid physics, as well as help design the experiments or systems for the microgravity situation.

           In our research, we are specifically targeting the use of computation in order to simulate couple fluid flow and heat transfer in a microgravity environment. Through the use of parallel computing facilities at the Computational Fluid Dynamics lab of the Aerospace Engineering Department, UT Austin, we are able to run multiple scenarios in order to find those flows that are the most interesting for physical experimentation. Computer simulations of idealized cases allow us to better understand the physical processes behind many of the observed physical phenomena in a variety of microgravity environments and non-linear flows. Sensitivity studies to various parameters can be carried out and preliminary design studies of fluid thermal systems are feasible.





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