The process of gel formation in the course of the photoinitiated copolymeri
zation of acrylamide and N,N'-methylene-bis-acrylamide under the conditions
excluding convective motions in the reaction mixture was studied. Using op
tical methods it is possible to visualize distribution of the monomer conve
rsion in the course of the reaction and determine the character of the poly
merization front propagation. A comparison of the experimental results with
data on the photopolymerization under microgravity conditions and the resu
lts of analytical calculations for a stationary medium shows that this expe
rimental approach is promising for the investigation of frontal processes u
nder laboratory conditions.