Electrically driven liquid film boiling a two phase heat transport device driven by electric conduction mechanism is an international space station experiment to investigate the effects of gravity…

This federal contract award, with ID NNX16AT09G, was granted by NASA to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) to develop an experiment to investigate the effects of gravity on electrically generated two-phase flow and electrically driven liquid film boiling. The $549,999.00 grant supports the development of flight hardware for the International Space Station, the conduct of the experiment onboard, operational support, and data evaluation. The effort is a collaborative project between WPI and the Goddard Space Flight Center. The contract does not have a set-aside designation. The project aims to build upon the success of a previous related NASA grant, NNX12AR32G, which has completed its technical and programmatic milestones. This award supports NASA's research priorities in advanced heat transport systems and two-phase flow dynamics.

Electrically driven liquid film boiling a two phase heat transport device driven by electric conduction mechanism is an international space station experiment to investigate the effects of gravity on electrically generated two-phase flow and electrically driven liquid film boiling. The proposed work is a collaborative effort between the investigators to develop and validate the flight experiment hardware. We propose this effort based upon the successes of our current project, which is NASA grant cooperative agreement NNX12AR32G electrically driven liquid film boiling a two phase heat transport device driven by electric conduction mechanism. Although the original effort extends through february 2017, we have completed tasks and achieved the technical and programmatic milestones of this project. That is, we have passed all the requirements of the science concept review and received the authorization to advance to the next stage of the experiment development. Therefore, the PI and CO PI submit this proposal to develop the flight experiment hardware with an effective start date of october 2016. This is a proposal to support the development of the experiment flight hardware for the international space station, conduct the experiment on board the international space station, support the operations of the experiment and evaluate the experimental data. The proposed period of performance is october 2016 to september 2021. The robust collaboration between worcester polytechnic institute and goddard space flight center can provide both state of the art theoretical investigation and deliver flight qualified experimental hardware; thus, this proposal presents both investigative and hardware development tasks. The PI will maintain overall technical direction of the experiment development; however, the CO i will support the flight experimental hardware development in collaboration with glenn research center.