This $399,404 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering (CFDA 47.041) program supports research to study the effects of parametric forcing on Marangoni flows in non-isothermal thin fluid layers, with the goal of enhancing heat transfer in materials processing and cooling of high-speed computational devices. The primary objectives are to determine how and when parametric forcing can prevent Marangoni flows and under what conditions it can lead to...
This $420,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports collaborative research on the effects of microgravity conditions on crystal growth and particle self-assembly during directional solidification of solutions. The research aims to reveal the subtle forces involved in these processes when gravity is removed, and compare the structural features obtained in microgravity versus on Earth. The research will integrate experimental...
This National Science Foundation project grant of $270,000 will fund research at the University of California, Berkeley from August 2022 to July 2026 under the Engineering (47.041) federal grant program. The research aims to study particle adsorption dynamics at fluid interfaces under microgravity conditions aboard the International Space Station. Specifically, the grant will support experiments to elucidate how particles attach to droplets in the absence of sedimentation effects and develop...
This $250,000 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) will fund research to investigate the motion and self-propulsion of "Marangoni surfers" on spherical liquid interfaces, such as levitating water droplets in microgravity aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The primary objective is to establish a computational-experimental framework to study the complex interactions between active particle motion,...
This $320,000 federal Project Grant, awarded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), supports collaborative research between Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and other institutions to study crystal growth and particle self-assembly during directional solidification in microgravity conditions on the International Space Station (ISS). The research aims to reveal the subtle forces involved in growing solvent crystals and forming particle assemblies, which...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a 3-year, $200,000 Project Grant under the Engineering Program (CFDA 47.041) to Advanced Cooling Technologies Inc. (Act) to conduct collaborative research on understanding thermal transport across a condensing film by performing experiments in microgravity conditions on the International Space Station. The research aims to better characterize the impact of gravity on the liquid-vapor interfacial behavior and its effect on thermal transport during the...
This $270,000 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at The Johns Hopkins University to study particle adsorption dynamics at fluid interfaces under microgravity conditions aboard the International Space Station. Funded through the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), this three-year award beginning August 15, 2022 aims to advance fundamental understanding of how particles attach to droplets in the absence of sedimentation effects. Findings will provide insight into...
This $347,379 federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) aims to investigate the transport and aggregation of non-volatile particles in drying colloidal sessile drops. The award supports research to examine the motion of particles suspended in evaporating droplets and link the particle transport to the final deposition patterns. The planned studies include high-fidelity numerical simulations and theoretical analyses to understand...
This National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) Project Grant award, totaling $920,715, aims to elucidate the roles of gravity on the freezing dynamics of sessile drops in the presence of soluble and insoluble particles. The research will be conducted at the University of Illinois and involve several key tasks: fabricating samples and solutions for experiments on the International Space Station (ISS), coordinating with NASA to prepare the experimental rig, overseeing...
This three-year, $395,999 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems Engineering program will fund research at Portland State University to disentangle inertial particle-turbulence mechanisms in microgravity conditions. The University will perform experimental exploration of single and collective particle interactions with turbulence using the Dryden Drop Tower facility. Objectives include dissociating the effects...
The National Science Foundation (NSF) Directorate for Engineering awarded a $303,524 Project Grant to George Mason University, doing business as Mason, for a research project titled "Collaborative Research: ISS: Colloidal Microflyers: Observation and Characterization of (Self-)Thermophoresis through Air in Microgravity."
The objective of this 4-year grant is to observe and quantify thermophoresis and self-thermophoresis of microparticles, like silica, alumina, and kaolinite, through air in the microgravity environment of the International Space Station (ISS). The research will provide the first experimental demonstration of colloidal self-propulsion through a gas and data to inform climate models and applications for collecting atmospheric aerosols, including those that transmit infectious diseases. The grant does not include any planned sub-awards.