On the convective disturbances induced by g-jitter on the space station

Monti, R. and Savino, R. and Lappa, M. (2001) On the convective disturbances induced by g-jitter on the space station. Acta Astronautica, 48 (5-12). pp. 603-615. ISSN 0094-5765 (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0094-5765(01)00031-5)

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Abstract

A numerical tool has been prepared to quickly predict the overall disturbances for the typical Microgravity Environment (MGE) on the ISS. A reference study case (that shows a large sensitivity to acceleration disturbances) is identified and numerical simulations are carried out to compare the results of the solution of the full Navier-Stokes equations with a time-dependent acceleration (that give the instantaneous time-dependent flow) with the solutions of the time-averaged field equations (Gershuni formulation), containing all the g-jitter terms (like those that identify the microgravity environment of the ISS) grouped in a single parameter. The paper shows that the overall disturbances of the thermo-fluid-dynamic field are easily evaluated assigning as input to the fluid-dynamic code a single (equivalent) frequency g-jitter (in the direct formulation) or an overall vibrational Rayleigh number (in the time-averaged formulation). The code is validated and applied to the problem of thermodiffusion in a typical metal alloy.