Liquid bridge pinch off and satelite drop formation under thermocapillary effect in Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo' aboard the International Space Station

Abstract

The long-duration fluid physics experiments on a thermocapillary-driven flow have been carried out on the Japanese experiment module 'Kibo' aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since 2008. In these experiments, various aspects of thermocapillary convection in a half-zone (HZ) liquid bridge of high Prandtl number fluid have been examined under the advantages of the long-duration high-quality microgravity environment. This fluid dynamics video introduce a pinch off of liquid bridge of 30 mm in diameter as a part of the on-orbit experiments. The effect of thermocapillary-driven flow on the pinch off and satellite drop formation is examined.