Necessities of high power level demands for thermal management systems in future space applications have stimulated research on gas-liquid two-phase flows under microgravity condition. Two-phase flow is an excellent alternative to the conventional sin...
Necessities of high power level demands for thermal management systems in future space applications have stimulated research on gas-liquid two-phase flows under microgravity condition. Two-phase flow is an excellent alternative to the conventional single-phase system in transporting large amount of thermal energy at a uniform temperature regardless of variations in the heat loads. In addition, two-phase flows exist in a wide range of applications and enabling technologies in space. These include material processing and ceramics at ultra high temperatures, life-support systems, storage and transport of cryogenics, and in the design of many cold plate assemblies where heating or cooling takes place at the instrument interface. More reliable design of such systems requires a through understanding of the mechanics of the two-phase flow at variable gravity conditions, since two-phase flow characteristics differ when subjected to earth gravity, to hyper-gravity, to Moon or Mars gravity, or to microgravity environment. The essential factors to the designers of such systems are also the flow patterns in a conduit, the void fraction, and the pressure drop at different gas and liquid flow rates. Recent progress in the study of gas-liquid two-phase flows at variable gravity conditions will be reviewed and discussed in this paper.