Development of a Miniaturized Demonstrator for Foam Rheology Microgravity Experiments

Abstract

The project under analysis is about the development and qualification of a demonstrator for a miniaturized foam rheology experiment performed in microgravity environment. The thesis is part of a larger feasibility study to evaluate the possibility of implementing such experiment on the International Space Station as an internal payload of the Fluid Science Laboratory in the Columbus module.
The project was developed in the Fluid Physics and Payloads department at Airbus Defence & Space in Immenstaad, in accordance with European Space Agency expectations and under the supervision of the experts of foam science from the Pierre and Marie Curie University of Paris.
The study was dedicated to the development and validation of a miniaturized hardware, which will be integrated in the existent Soft Matter Dynamics Experiment Container available on the International Space Station. It was focused on the design and testing of the demonstrator hardware in a Verification Test Facility, which was as close as possible to the real target system intended for use in the future mission. The system qualification was done in close cooperation with the science team interested in the results of the space experiment.
The main findings of this research are related to the possibility of the studying foam in space. The microgravity conditions experienced in that environment are extremely useful to study specific fluid phenomena in gravity absence, to investigate foam proprieties and stability, and to obtain advance knowledge useful for foam practical applications on Earth. In particular, the understanding of rheology in wet foams has proven to be difficult on Earth and a dedicated space investigation could carry out interesting unknown properties, which could affect enormously the application of foams in industrial and commercial processes.
The work started with the study of the requirements and was focused on the evaluation of the design through the assembly, integration and testing of the miniaturized system. During the hardware evaluation the weaknesses of the proposed design were identified. Alternative solutions for the demonstrator were developed and recorded in order to improve the future system. Various tests were carried out to verify the design performances and functionality. Good results were obtained with the improvements applied after the first testing campaign.
Eventually, a series of verification tests were performed to complete the requirements compliance analysis. The majority of the results obtained was successful, however the full compliance of the current hardware was not reached and the validation campaign was not possible due to an open issue in the membrane application. At the present time, a solution for a multi-layer membrane is under development. Once it will be available, the demonstrator will be assembled and integrated, and a new series of verification tests will be performed. The final steps of the project will be the validation campaign and the presentation to European Space Agency about the system status and suggestions for future design improvements.