Purdue News Photo
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Hui Zhang, left, a Purdue mechanical engineering doctoral student, and Issam Mudawar, a Purdue professor of mechanical engineering, work on a flight apparatus used to conduct experiments on a NASA aircraft that creates reduced gravity conditions such as those in earth orbit, on the moon and Mars. The apparatus has a back-lighted window that enables engineers to take high-speed pictures and video of fluid flowing through tubing during reduced gravity. Data from the experiments enabled the researchers to verify the accuracy of a model that engineers can use to design more efficient spacecraft systems for everything from heating and air conditioning to nuclear power. The future space systems, using the same principle behind ordinary air conditioners and refrigerators, will have a closed loop in which liquid comes to a boil as it absorbs heat, turns into a vapor and is then returned by pumps so that it condenses back into a liquid, and in the process cools down to begin the cycle over again. Designing the systems will require a better understanding of the behavior of boiling and condensing liquids in space. The Purdue model was developed during a four-year NASA-funded project led by Mudawar.
(Purdue News Service photo/David Umberger)
The story accompanying this photograph can be seen by clicking this link to Mudawar.twophase
For more information about photographs, send e-mail to:
David Umberger
Associate Director
Purdue News Service
umberger@purdue.edu
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