2015 Volume 32 Issue 1 Pages 320105-
As a part of ground support activities for the upcoming experiments in the International Space Station (ISS), convection inside a molten Zr, one of flight samples was numerically predicted. The sample will be processed with the materials science laboratory – electromagnetic levitation (MSL-EML) facility which has already been installed in the European deck. Thermophysical properties, such as, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, viscosity and surface tension of the molten Zr will be measured. The validity of some of these properties are significantly affected by convection during the measurements and the convection must be predicted in advance to help design the space experiments. Utilizing the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model developed in the previous research, a series of simulations was performed in order to investigate the convection during the space experiments.
