Meet the teams: Breakteam
The Breakteam is formed by Valentina Picardi, James Garbagnati, Beatriz Munoz-Sanchez and their endorsing professor J.R. Castrejon-Pita from Queen Mary, University of London. Their project is devoted to the study of liquid break-up under micro-gravity conditions. Valentina and James are MEng students (Masters, Aerospace Engineering) and Beatriz is a PhD students at University of Seville. J.R. Castrejon-Pita is a Lecturer in Applied Science.
Liquid Breakup in Microgravity
| University | Queen Mary University of London, University of Seville |
| Endorsing professor | Jose Rafael Castrejon Pita (Queen Mary University of London) |
| Team | Valentina Picardi, James Garbagnati (Queen Mary University of London) and Beatriz Munoz-Sanchez (University of Seville) |
The project will experimentally study the thinning and break-up of liquids containing particles. These studies are important because they can model a variety of complex fluids found in practical applications. The objective is to design and build a portable experimental rig that can be carried into the Drop Capsule.
The experimental setup will consist of a filament-stretching rig where high-speed imaging and image analysis will be used to record the dynamics of the breakup process. The visualization rig has been inspired by previous setups developed by Dr. Castrejon-Pita to study liquids under other conditions. The aim is to obtain images of the last moment prior liquid breakup, as the images shown in video below.
The experimental setup will consist of a high-speed shadowgraph system operating with LEDs and a programmable servomotor remotely operated. The motor will pull a rod (or piston) in contact with a small liquid pool. Pulling the rod will form a liquid filament and high-speed imaging will capture the dynamics of such filaments until breakup. Parametric studies would consist of exploring these dynamics in terms of the viscosity of the liquid, the particle properties and the speed of the rod.
Our proposal aims to perform experiments in microgravity to advance our understanding of drop formation in out-of-Earth conditions. These studies are of great importance as these fluids, i.e. liquids with granular media, are used by several technologies including inkjet and several 3D printers. Gaining understanding of the break-up process and drop formation in microgravity could help on the design of drop generators and other liquid dispensing devices for space applications.
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