Liquid bridge pinch off and satelite drop formation under thermocapillary effect in Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo' aboard the International Space Station

TL;DR

This study investigates how thermocapillary-driven flow influences the pinch-off and satellite drop formation of a liquid bridge in microgravity conditions aboard the ISS, providing insights into fluid dynamics in space.

Contribution

It presents experimental observations of liquid bridge pinch-off and satellite drop formation under thermocapillary effects in microgravity, a novel investigation in space-based fluid physics.

Findings

Thermocapillary flow affects the pinch-off dynamics.

Satellite drop formation is influenced by thermocapillary-driven flow.

Long-duration microgravity experiments enable detailed fluid behavior analysis.

Abstract

The long-duration fluid physics experiments on a thermocapillary-driven flow have been carried out on the Japanese experiment module 'Kibo' aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since 2008. In these experiments, various aspects of thermocapillary convection in a half-zone (HZ) liquid bridge of high Prandtl number fluid have been examined under the advantages of the long-duration high-quality microgravity environment. This fluid dynamics video introduce a pinch off of liquid bridge of 30 mm in diameter as a part of the on-orbit experiments. The effect of thermocapillary-driven flow on the pinch off and satellite drop formation is examined.