Preparation of JEREMI Experiment: Development of the Ground Based Prototype

Abstract

This study has been performed in the frame of preparing the space experiment JEREMI (Japanese and European Research Experiment on Marangoni Instabilities). The use of forced coaxial gas flow is proposed as a way to stabilize the Marangoni convection in liquid bridges, which might have important technological applications in the floating zone technique. A new set-up is under development and all sub-systems have passed severe tests. Here we present the design of this set-up and preliminary results of experiments for shear-driven two-phase flows in a confined volume of liquid under conditions of normal gravity. The geometry corresponds to a cylindrical liquid bridge concentrically surrounded by an annular gas channel with external solid walls. Gas enters into the annular duct, flows between solid walls and upon reaching the liquid zone entrains initially quiescent liquid. The test liquids are ethanol, n-decane and 5 cSt silicone oil, which have different degrees of viscosity and of volatility. The gas flow along the interface strongly enhances the evaporation and, correspondingly, affects the interface shape. Silhouette measurements are used for optical determination of the interface shape. From the digital images the variation of the liquid volume as a function of flow rate is calculated.