Queen of CFE

Capillary Flow Experiments are a big deal. In her recent stay on the International Space Station, Sunita Williams was dubbed the Queen of CFE because she worked the experiments 9 times.

It's no surprise that fluid management can be an important problem in space. After all, you gotta use fluids, whether it's in a cooling system or in a fuel tank. The problem is, on Earth, you can always know where the fluid is because gravity helps is all pool together at the bottom, typically. In microgravity, you don't get that benefit. So what happens if you're sucking fuel in from your gas tank and suddenly all you get is air because all your gas is now on the opposite side of the exit?

Scientists today have devised a variety of "vanes" and "screens" to help move fluid along in the right direction by utilizing capillary forces. Because capillary forces are normally dominated by gravity, there's a lot that's still unknown about how to harness the capillary force phenomenon. On the space station, the scientists were able to set up video live feeds to scientists on Earth, thus allowing earthbound scientists to do their experiments with practically real-time tweaking. The scientists at Portland State University, Purdue University, NASA's Glenn Research Center and Zin Technologies have been able to collect a lot more data than expected because they have the benefit of trial and error on the space station.

The data so far can help engineers on Earth reevaluate designs for many fluid systems, including fuel tanks and fuel lines, IV drips, cryogenic equipment, thermal systems, purification systems, as well as waste management.

Read more details from the original article on NASA's website. YAY! for space station!