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...
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 National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant award for $108,237, with a performance period from March 1, 2025 to February 28, 2027, is part of the agency's Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CFDA 47.049) research program. The project aims to understand the detailed physical mechanisms of segregation during capillary flow of molten metallic alloys under microgravity and terrestrial conditions. Key objectives include: (1) formulating mathematical/computational theory to model the...
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 three-year, $247,500 National Science Foundation project grant supports research at Stanford University to assess the effect of microgravity on the growth and properties of metal-organic framework crystals. The NSF Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems awarded the funding under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041). Specifically, the project will grow three types of MOF crystals in microgravity on the International Space Station and under normal...
This Project Grant from the National Science Foundation's Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems aims to assess the effect of microgravity on growth and properties of metal-organic framework (MOF) crystals. With a total funding amount of $247,500 and an award period from September 1, 2022 to August 31, 2025, the grant will support collaborative research between the University of California, Berkeley and the International Space Station (ISS) to grow three types...
This $600,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Engineering program (CFDA 47.041) supports research by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University that aims to leverage light-matter interactions to investigate the effects of microgravity on the processing and properties of nanocomposite materials. The research focuses on manufacturing ceramic, lunar, and planetary regolith nanoparticles in polymer matrices, with the goal of tailoring the mechanical and functional...
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 federal Project Grant award, valued at $250,209.00 and granted by the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CFDA 47.041 - Engineering), aims to investigate the motion of self-propelled Marangoni surfers on spherical interfaces, such as levitating water droplets in microgravity aboard the International Space Station. The research seeks to establish a computational-experimental framework to capture the complex...
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...