Dr. Bradley Carpenter is excited about the four fluid physics experiments scheduled to fly aboard the space shuttle this fall, but he finds that sharing his enthusiasm for fluid dynamics with others can be challenging. Most people are unaware of the importance of fluid physics, even though fluids are ubiquitous and their dynamics are fundamental to many processes in nature and technology. Gravity strongly affects many phenomena of fluid physics by creating forces in the fluid systems that drive motions, shape boundaries, and compress the fluids.
Gravity can also obscure forces that are ever-present but comparatively weak.
Fluid scientists using the microgravity environment have an opportunity to unmask and study such forces as surface tension, thermocapillary flow, and convection. This fundamental knowledge will aid researchers working on problems as diverse as the solidification of a molten semiconductor and the atmospheric dynamics of gaseous planets. The special low-gravity conditions aboard the shuttle will also allow Principal Investigators Dr. Taylor Wang of Vanderbilt University and Dr. Robert Apfel of Yale University to test theoretical models of fluid phenomena. Models of fluid behavior are as old as the science of calculus, and people have been interested in fluid dynamics as long as they have been watching raindrops fall. Water drops are indeed the focus of both Dr. Wang's and Dr. Apfel's experiments.