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Gas-Liquid Flows Through Porous Media in Microgravity: The International Space Station Packed Bed Reactor Experiment
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  • Brian Motil,
  • Enrique Rame,
  • Paul Salgi,
  • Mahsa Taghavi,
  • Vemuri Balakotaiah
Brian Motil
NASA Glenn Research Center

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Enrique Rame
UNIVERSITIES SPACE RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
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Paul Salgi
University of Houston
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Mahsa Taghavi
University of Houston
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Vemuri Balakotaiah
University of Houston
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Abstract

Experimental results on pressure drop and flow patterns for gas-liquid flow through packed beds obtained in the International Space Station with two types of packing are presented and analyzed. It is found that the pressure drop depends on the packing wettability in the viscous-capillary (V-C) regime and this dependence is compared with previously published results developed using short duration low-gravity aircraft tests. Within the V-C regime, the capillary contribution is the dominant force contributing to the pressure drop for the wetting case (glass) versus the viscous contribution dominating for the non-wetting case (Teflon). Outside of the V-C regime, it is also found that hysteresis effects that are often strong in normal gravity gas-liquid flows are greatly diminished in microgravity and pressure drop is nearly independent of packing wettability. A flow pattern transition map from bubble to pulse flow is also compared with the earlier aircraft data.
23 Mar 2020Submitted to AIChE Journal
26 Mar 2020Submission Checks Completed
26 Mar 2020Assigned to Editor
28 Apr 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
22 May 2020Editorial Decision: Revise Minor
19 Jun 20201st Revision Received
03 Jul 2020Submission Checks Completed
03 Jul 2020Assigned to Editor
07 Jul 2020Reviewer(s) Assigned
24 Aug 2020Editorial Decision: Accept