Date of Award

2008

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Ziad Saghir

Abstract

A ground based experiment using digital optical interferometry was conducted to measure the Soret and thermodiffusion coefficients of a liquid binary mixture of water-isopropanol with different mass fractions in a rectangular glass cell. The cell was subjected to a temperature gradient of 6°C, and the entire experimental setup was placed inside a heat insulation box. The results showed agreement with published results and established that the method of measurement is a competitive and accurate method to measure the transport coefficients in binary liquid mixtures. In preparation for future IVIDIL (influence of vibrations on diffusion in liquids) experiments on board the International Space Station, a numerical analysis for the mixture of water-10% isopropanol was performed to determine the effects of g-jitter on the flow inside a cylindrical model subject to a temperature gradient of 10°C. The data for g-jitter, Soret and thermodiffusion coefficients were obtained from FOTON-12 and used in the analysis. A comparison between zero-gravity, micro-gravity and g-jitter scenarios showed that the presence of g-jitter does affect the flow inside the cell. Temperature and concentration times to reach the steady state were increased.


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