Measurements of phoretic velocities of aerosol particles in microgravity conditions

Abstract

Measurements of thermo- and diffusio-phoretic velocities of aerosol particles (carnauba wax, paraffin and sodium chloride) were performed in microgravity conditions (Drop Tower facility, in Bremen, and Parabolic Flights, in Bordeaux). In the case of thermophoresis, a temperature gradient was obtained by heating the upper plate of the cell, while the lower one was maintained at environmental temperature. For diffusiophoresis, the water vapour gradient was obtained with sintered plates imbued with a water solution of MgCl 2 and distilled water, at the top and at the bottom of the cell, respectively. Aerosol particles were observed through a digital holographic velocimeter, a device allowing the determination of 3-D coordinates of particles from the observed volume. Particle trajectories and consequently particle velocities were reconstructed through the analysis of the sequence of particle positions. The experimental values of reduced thermophoretic velocities are between the theoretical values of Yamamoto and Ishihara [Yamamoto, K., Ishihara, Y., 1988. Thermophoresis of a spherical particle in a rarefied gas of a transition regime. Phys. Fluids. 31, 3618–3624] and Talbot et al. [Talbot, L., Cheng, R.K., Schefer, R.W., Willis, D.R., 1980. Thermophoresis of particles in a heated boundary layer. J. Fluid Mech. 101, 737–758], and do not show a clear dependence on the thermal conductivity of the aerosol. The existence of negative thermophoresis is not confirmed in our experiments. Concerning diffusiophoretic experiments, the results obtained show a small increase of reduced diffusiophoretic velocity with the Knudsen number.