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Technical Paper

A Novel Testing Protocol for Evaluating Particle Behavior in Fluid Flow Under Simulated Reduced Gravity Conditions

2009-07-12
2009-01-2359
A terrestrial analog device was developed to test the performance of a proposed lunar regolith-based water filtration design. To support this study, the flow behavior of tracer particles passing through a glass bead media filter was evaluated on NASA's reduced gravity aircraft in simulated microgravity and lunar gravity environments. The flight results were then compared to tests conducted using a novel application of a clinostat tilted ∼10 degrees from horizontal to simulate a lunar gravity vector fraction (1/6 of Earth's gravity, or 0.17g) acting axially on the fluid system. Phase I was designed to examine large particle fluidization and sedimentation characteristics, and showed that with relatively large particles, a sedimentation layer formed in the inclined clinostat similar to the true reduced gravity environment.
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