Facilities

The Interphase Transport Phenomena Laboratory (ITP) is part of the Nuclear Engineering Department and works closely with the Spacecraft Engineering Research Center. The ITP has accumulated more than 10,000 parabolas of reduced gravity experience with NASA and 0g Corp. Aircraft. The ITP laboratory has extensive experience in the construction and testing of microgravity fluids experiments including projects for the Air Force Research Laboratory, multiple NASA Field Centers, Foster-Miller Inc., Creare Inc., Boeing, and Thermacore. The laboratory provides a number of facilities to carryout reduced gravity testing and has supported a number of companies and universities in completing their experiments in this unique environment. The laboratory maintains a number of flight qualified experiment packages that can be configured to meet customers needs. The laboratory utilizes flight proven instrumentation and data acquisition equipment as well as maintains a number of predictive codes for thermal-hydraulic behavior under reduced gravity conditions.

Gas Saturation

The ITP maintains a Gas Saturation Test Facility for use aboard NASA’s reduced gravity aircraft. This facility is able to produce over 40 gallons of gas saturated liquid and transfer it to monitored test tanks flown aboard NASA’s reduced gravity aircraft. Hardware includes four stainless steel tanks of various size, high pressure sight glasses, gas spargers and associated hardware to interface with typical fluid systems.

Flight Packages

The ITP maintains multiple reconfigurable packages for use in reduced gravity flight. Each package can be modified to support a wide array of experimental equipment. The racks allow for multiple experiments to be flown simultaneously and each has been designed to integrate small experiments at the airfield prior to flight. This feature provides customers with more time to develop their experiments without the burden of designing and building the support structure.  Special provisions can be added to provide compressed gas storage or a heat exchanger for cooling experiments.

Instrumentation

The ITP maintains a number of different flight proven sensors and specialized instrumentation. These include accelerometers, flow meters, pressure sensors, and temperature transducers that connect to a digital data acquisition system. Several types of imagers are available including high speed imagers capable of over 5000 fps and infared imagers.

Loop Heat Pipe Facility

The ITP has a kilowatt class loop heat pipe facility for use in performance investigations. This system can be coupled with a chiller unit to simulate various orbital conditions.