Analysis of capillary drainage from a flat solid strip

A long and narrow solid strip coated with a thin liquid layer is used as a model of a generic fluid mass probe in a spacecraft propellant tank just after a small thruster firing. The drainage dynamics of the initial coating layer into the settled bulk fluid affects the interpretation of probe measur...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Physics of fluids (1994) 2014-06, Vol.26 (6)
Hauptverfasser: Ramé, Enrique, Zimmerli, Gregory A.
Format: Artikel
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:A long and narrow solid strip coated with a thin liquid layer is used as a model of a generic fluid mass probe in a spacecraft propellant tank just after a small thruster firing. The drainage dynamics of the initial coating layer into the settled bulk fluid affects the interpretation of probe measurements as the sensors' signal depends strongly on whether a sensor is in contact with vapor or with liquid. We analyze the drainage under various conditions of zero-gravity (i.e., capillary drainage) and with gravity aligned with the strip length, corresponding to the thruster acceleration. Long-time analytical solutions are found for zero and non-zero gravity. In the case with gravity, an approximate solution is found using matched asymptotics. Estimates show that a thrust of 10−3g0 significantly reduces drainage times.
ISSN:1070-6631
1089-7666
DOI:10.1063/1.4879827