Abstract
The measurement of interfacial tension between molten slag and molten iron under microgravity in the International Space Station (ISS) is planned, where an oscillating drop technique with an electrostatically-levitated compound droplet will be used. In this work, numerical simulations for oscillation behaviors of a compound droplet composed of molten iron core and molten slag shell phases were performed using OpenFOAM, to determine the operational conditions for measuring the interfacial tension under microgravity. Here, the effects of viscosity and radius ratios of shell to core phases on the oscillation frequency of the compound droplet, i.e., on the interfacial tension evaluated from the frequency, were investigated. As a result, it was found that the oscillating drop technique is available to measure the interfacial tension if the appropriate condition of the radius ratio is selected.
