Spanish User Support and Operations Centre

Physics (PHY)

E-USOC is a centre specialized in Research and Development (R&D) activities in the fields of space science and technology. The centre is located in the Montegancedo Excellent IT and Technology Transfer Campus. E-USOC is one of the seven european centres delegated by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the preparation and execution of experiments aboard the International Space Station (ISS). Furthermore, E-USOC is the main point of contact for Spanish scientists who want to carry out microgravity experiments.

Vibrated Fluids in Microgravity

The purpose of this project is to investigate fluid phenomena induced by vibrations, which play an important role in microgravity environments. Understanding the effects of vibrations on confined fluid systems, whether gravity comes into play or not, is critical to numerous scientific and engineering. The response of the system naturally depends on the physical properties of the fluids involved, on the properties of the domain and on the characteristics of the applied forcing (frequency, amplitude, orientation). Periodic forcing, for example, can induce free surface instabilities like Faraday waves, cross-waves, and frozen waves, while suppressing other phenomena like the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. More information in: http://www.eusoc.upm.es/en/projects/viflu.html

Phase Change Materials (PCMs)

PCMs are materials with a high latent heat in their transition from solid to liquid. They are used in space passive thermal control systems to prevent electrical systems reach temperatures outside their range of operation. This is because their high latent heat can store a lot of heat, or release to the environment in the reverse process, with hardly vary its temperature. These properties allow reducing mass shipped on board to manage the thermal control of electrical, electronic and sample storage systems. However, a problem in the use of PCMs is the slow heat transfer due to its low thermal conductivity, which cannot be solved with natural convection in microgravity. This project analyses different mechanisms to increase the heat transfer; induction of convective flows using the Marangoni effect, introduction of metal nanoparticles, etc.