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FLEX-2 Status
January 2011-FLEX-2 hardware is being launched to the
International Space Station on various launch carriers. The
HTV-2 launch delivered fuel deployment needles and needle holders. The
upcoming STS-133/ULF-5 launch will deliver fiber arms, check gas bottles,
argon/helium bottles, igniter tip holders, a Fuel/Oxidizer Management
Assembly (FOMA) control unit, and a High Bit Depth/Multispectral (HiBMS)
imaging package. The FLEX-2 experiments will likely begin operation
around July 2011.
Description
Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 (FLEX-2) is a follow-on experiment
to FLEX. FLEX-2 is a combustion science experiment that will
study bi-component fuels, the influence of sub-buoyant convective
flows, the application of practical fuels, and an extension of single
droplet studies to binary arrays of droplets.
FLEX-2 is developed under contract by ZIN Technologies, Inc. FLEX-2
will utilize the Multi-User Droplet Combustion Apparatus (MDCA) in
the Combustion Integrated Rack (CIR) on the ISS.
The FLEX-2 investigation will extend single droplet combustion studies
of pure fuels to idealized fuel mixtures and practical fuels and to
environments more relevant to engines (such as droplets in a flow-field
and droplet-droplet interactions). Results of the FLEX-2 experimental
data will help to develop verified detailed and reduced-order models
of droplet combustion.
Objective
Extend the results of FLEX-1 to fuels and environmental conditions
that mimic real combustor conditions
- Investigate bi-component fuels – real fuels are multi-component
- Examine the influence of sub-buoyant convective flows – real
combustors involve gas/droplet relative motion
- Study practical fuels and fuel surrogates
- Study binary droplet arrays – real combustors have droplet-droplet
interactions
- Develop and validate detailed and reduced-order transport, chemistry
and soot models that are the foundation for real engine simulations
Relevance/Impact
The combustion of liquid fuels is the overwhelming energy source
in the transportation sector
- Design future combustors to minimize carbon footprint (maximize
fuel efficiency) and minimize pollutant emissions
- The development of surrogates (mixtures of pure fuels that simulate
the behavior of real fuels) will allow quantitative evaluation
of the performance of future fuels (e.g., oil shales, biofuels,
etc.) in combustors
- Prior droplet results helped validate jet engine models by engine
manufacturers
Development Approach
- Flight design leverages off previous flight design heritage
(MDCA/FLEX)
- Multi-user, re-usable apparatus minimizing up-mass/volume, costs,
and crew involvement
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Image of Bi-component fuel
droplet |
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Image of burning droplet
subjected to convective flow |
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Color image of a burning
droplet |
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FLEX Chamber Insert Assembly
Apparatus |
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Flight Unit Avionics Package
installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator and Flight Unit
Chamber Insert Assembly. |
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Flight Unit Chamber Insert
Assembly |
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Flight Unit Avionics Package
installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator |
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Flight Unit Avionics Package
installed on Ground Unit Optics Bench Simulator |
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