On 3/15/2007, "R.C.Macaulay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Zachary Wrote.. > >>Have you ever talked with any of the TExas A&M boys working on NASA's >vortex phase separator? > >No I have not. Tell me something about it or the people involved. > >
The project director is Fred Best, who is a nuclear engineer with a focus in multi-phase flows. http://nuclear.tamu.edu/home/people/faculty/best/index.php Their work is with a a cylinder that injects a moist vapor / liquid froma tangent and sucks it out a port in the botom-center of the cylinder. A vortex flow forms in the process and they study it to understand phase transport effects (how stuff separates) in Zero-G. The system particularly focuses on liquid / gas separations. It system is on track for integration into NASA's "Immobilized Microbe Microgravity Water Processing System" (IMMWPS), for sustained living in space. It only works in microgravity Most of their work was done aboard parabolic trajectory planes. The work was done through his Interphase Transport Phenomena Laboratory http://itp.tamu.edu/ The only papers put out are from the ITP lab manager, Cable Kurwitz. I get the impression that the work they did was 'frozen' so it could enter NASA's pipeline to get flown. I've never spoken with Best or Kurwitz, though, so I can't comment on whether they've stalled recently, or are just in a holding pattern. Best also launched the Center for Space Power, which does a bunch of corporate stuff http://engineer.tamu.edu/tees/csp/index.html If I had to wager somewhere, I'd say Best's recent time in this area has been spent working with industry - even beyond the CSP >>thanks for the EDAV link, it's cute. > >Kim's EDAV has some ideas.. not to be discounted.. he has some people that >he claims has a working Implosion device.. he's been working on it long >enough but health has sidetracked him. > Hopefully he'll make more strides. What kind of 'implosion device'? That has been used to name a range of mechanisms. Zak
