Behaviors of Liquid Partially Filled in Sealed Vessels under Normal Gravity Conditions: Toward On-orbit Experiment aboard the ISS

Abstract

Toward the on-orbit experiments on liquid-gas behaviors in closed vessels aboard the International Space Station (ISS), a series of ground experiments were conducted by use of the engineering model (EM). Target phenomenon was a sloshing in a rotationally oscillating rectangular vessel. Numerical model was developed to predict the motion of the liquid with the free surface by applying the level-set method and continuum surface force (CSF) method. Based on the prediction of the resonant frequencies in the laterally oscillating rectangular vessel, our numerical model well reproduced the ground-experiment results with n-hexane as the test liquid, whereas significant discrepancy was found against those with water. We successfully reproduced the sloshing of water in the EM by proposing another numerical model with small pinning plates to prevent smooth motion of the contact line on the side walls.