On practical methods to determine porometric characteristics of thin samples made from combined porous mesh material

Abstract

On the example of a porous structure operation in the gas-liquid flow as the phase separator, the paper demonstrates the porometric characteristics effect to assess its performance in the capillary-type intra-tank devices of the space propulsion system fuel tanks. It is shown that for manufacture of a permeable phase separator taking into account the stable capillary structure and the possibility to obtain the hydraulic resistance given value, it is advisable to introduce a combined porous mesh material. For practical determination of one of the porous structure characteristics, i.e. the capillary holding capacity, a method is presented for preparing the permeable structure surface of the phase separator material for testing based on the “bubble” technique, and principles of using such wetting liquids as water, glycerin or ethyl alcohol are discussed. Taking into account small thicknesses of the phase separators made of combined porous materials, types of the circuit solutions of the test installations are provided for determining the capillary holding capacity of porous mesh materials differing from the traditional ones used in orosimetry of soils, rocks and filter materials obtained on the basis of powder metallurgy.