Supporting an ISS experiment as PhD students: a case study of the PARTICLE VIBRATION project

This paper provides an insight into the involvement of two PhD students in the PARTICLE VIBRATION project, a multiphase fluid experiment, also known as, “Thermovibrationally-driven Particle self-Assembly and Ordering mechanisms in Low grAvity” (T-PAOLA) to be launched on the International Space Station by the end of 2022. The project aims to identify self-organization phenomena in dispersed phase flows when vibrations are applied to the system. It will therefore underpin the development of new contactless particle manipulations and materials processing strategies. In this short paper, the work of two PhD candidates, working within the T-PAOLA project framework, is discussed. In doing so, the various research activities undertaken are highlighted, both experimental and numerical, as is the peripheral or supporting research being undertaken by both students in order to expand the scope of the project and identify new lines of enquiry regarding convection-based control mechanisms