Capillary Provision of Water and Nutrients to Plants Grown in Microgravity

Date

2020-07-31

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems

Abstract

Passive provision of water and nutrients for the growth of plants in microgravity environmental systems can effectively be accomplished through the exploitation of capillary forces in various geometries, such as a network of wetted open interior corners. Provided the Concus-Finn condition is satisfied, capillary flows may be established along conduits that consist of simple interior corners (or ‘wedges’). A numerical free surface solver tool was employed to predict capillary flow of water to inform the design and construction of test articles for use in drop tower experiments. In addition, single and parallel flow path configurations were investigated with consideration for harvesting duckweed, a micro-flowering plant, in a microgravity environment. We report the effects of material, surface conditions, and interior corner half-angle on capillary performance. Titanium, glass and polymeric materials with factory, machined, and shot peened surfaces were used in experiments with deionized water and duckweed. The results guided the advanced development of micro-plant growth beds.

Description

James Nabity, University of Colorado Boulder, US
Ray Pitts, University of Colorado Boulder, US
Jacob Rehmeier, University of Colorado Boulder, US
Mark Weislogel, Portland State University, US
Christine Escobar, Space Lab Technologies, LLC, US
Brett Shaffer, Space Lab Technologies, LLC, US
ICES204: Bioregenerative Life Support
Adam Escobar, Space Lab Technologies, LLC, US
The proceedings for the 2020 International Conference on Environmental Systems were published from July 31, 2020. The technical papers were not presented in person due to the inability to hold the event as scheduled in Lisbon, Portugal because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Keywords

Capillary flow, Interior corner, Duckweed

Citation