落下塔を利用した微小重力下の気液二相流実験

抄録

In a gas-liquid two-phase flow, forces such as surface tension, momentum force and gravity affect on the interaction between dispersed phases such as droplets and bubbles, as well as gas and liquid continuous phases. Gas-liquid two-phase flow experiments under micro-gravity environment have been increasingly carried out in recent years using drop shafts, aircraft, and space stations, to evaluate the influence of these forces included in the constitutive equation utilized in numerical analysis. Here the drop shaft is a very useful tool for two-phase flow experiments, especially when microscopic measurement is required as in the confirmation of a constitutive equation for numerical analysis, because there is a very small remaining gravity of 10^-4-10^-5 g and no horizontal force. This report outlines examples of research being conducted in Japan on a gas-liquid two-phase flow under micro-gravity environment using a drop shaft, with the aim of confirmation of constitutive equation. Research on gas-liquid two-phase flow under micro-gravity environment using a drop shaft as in these examples is expected to be conducted increasingly in the future, shedding future light on the phenomena of gas-liquid two-phase flow.