GROUND SIMULATION OF FLOW AND HEAT-TRANSFER UNDER MICROGRAVITY

A new preservation technique is advanced, by which the flow and heat t ransfer in the manned spacecraft cabin can be simulated in the model o n the ground with simultaneous preservation of temperature, material a nd Nusselt number. Numerical studies of flow and temperature fields in a cabin show that the gravity effect can be neglected if the scale of the model reduces to 1:5, which corresponds to the ratio of Grashof n umber to the square of Renolds number smaller than the critical value. Below this value the natural convection is negligible.