Facilities

The Interphase Transport Phenomena Laboratory (ITP) is part of the Nuclear Engineering Department and has vast reduced gravity experience with more than 6,000 parabolas of testing fluid systems under weightless conditions. The ITP laboratory has extensive experience in the construction and testing of microgravity fluids experiments including KC-135 projects for the Air Force Phillips Laboratory, multiple NASA Field Centers, Foster-Miller Inc., Creare Inc., Boeing, Thermacore, Dynatherm, and the NASA Commercial Center for Space Power. The ITP was a partner in the shuttle Loop Heat Pipe flight experiment, which flew aboard STS-87 to test this advanced thermal technology and validated its readiness for space applications. Recent projects include various Advanced Life Support (ALS) flight projects and active two-phase investigations, “KC-135 Testing of Two Phase Flow in Earth, Lunar, and Mars Gravity” and “Lightweight Carbon Thermal Management System (LC-TMS).” The ITP utilizes a number of test packages and is equipped with a wide array of two-phase flow instrumentation qualified for use aboard the KC-135.

The laboratory members have access to high quality machine shops and other facilities used in the fabrication and certification of test packages. The ITP is equipped with a wide array of two-phase flow instrumentation qualified for use aboard the KC-135. Other instrumentation includes temperature, pressure, differential pressure, accelerometers, and flow transducers for use in microgravity. Unique instrumentation used to support previous flight projects include ultrasonic thickness gauges, nuclear gamma densitometers, and hot film anemometry. Data acquisition equipment includes ruggedized personal computers, A/D conversion cards, and acquisition and analysis software. The laboratory utilizes a number of video recording devices and supporting hardware including a high speed digital imager capable of in excess of 1000 frames per second (fps).