Conjugate problems of transport phenomena under quasi-steady microaccelerations in realistic spaceflight.

A new model for spatial convective transport processes conjugated with the measured or calculated realistic quasi-steady microaccelerations is presented. Rotation around the mass center, including accelerated rotation, gravity gradient, and aerodynamical drag are taken into account. New results of the effect on mixing and concentration inhomogeneities of the elementary convective processes are presented.

Thermoconvectional phenomena induced by vibrations in supercritical SF6 under weightlessness.

The effect of a linear harmonic vibration on heat propagation is investigated in near-critical SF6 under weightlessness conditions in space. Heat was issued from a pointlike source (thermistor), a situation representative of an industrial use of pressurized supercritical fluid storage. Two kinds of vibrations were used, large amplitude (64 mm) at 0.

Hydrostatic compressibility phenomena: new opportunities for near-critical research in microgravity.

Peculiarities of the isothermal and isentropic equilibrium in highly compressible media with nonperfect state equations are discussed. Formulation of the adiabatic temperature gradient using Schwarzschild criterion and equilibrium equations for nonperfect gas are considered. Criterion for the onset of convection in the van der Waals (VDW) gas is examined using direct numerical modeling on the basis of equation for convection in compressible viscous nonperfect gas.

Unsteady near-critical flows in microgravity.

This paper presents analysis of the different time scales associated with unsteady fluid flow phenomena near the thermodynamical critical point and that are typical for experiments carried out in microgravity. A focus of the paper is modeling the initial stage of convection under low and zero gravity on the basis of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations for a compressible gas with the Van der Waals state equation. We also consider a thermoacoustic problem on the basis of three-dimensional linearized equations for an isentropic inviscid gas near the critical point in zero gravity.