Abstract
Since Kumagai and Isoda conducted the first combustion experiment in microgravity in 1950s, droplet-combustion experiments have been evolving. Recently, a wide variety of multiple-droplet-combustion experiments has been conducted in space-based microgravity environments, such as “Group Combustion” experiments with randomly distributed droplet clouds, droplet-cloud elements, droplet-cluster array, and movable droplet arrays conducted aboard the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” on the ISS, and “Phoenix-2” experiments with droplet arrays using TEXUS sounding rocket. This paper describes some key techniques in droplet-combustion experiments, such as tethering droplets in space using fine SiC fibers and droplet formation on the SiC fibers by supplying liquid fuel through fine glass tubes. As recent experiments using the techniques, we report some results from “Group Combustion” experiments and the outline of “Phoenix-2.”