Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM
Monday, March 22, 2010 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium
Yuanming Liu
"Zero Gravity Simulations: Superconducting Magnets and Levitating Mice"
ABSTRACT -- This talk will present an overview of magnetic levitation and a description of the laboratory-based maglev facility at Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The centerpiece of the laboratory is a magnet with a relatively large (66 millimeter diameter) clear bore. Although the clear bore is at room temperature, the superconducting magnet operates at liquid helium temperature. Because the magnet operates in persistent mode, the laboratory can economically carry out long-duration experiments. The talk will describe recent experiments in which the magnet levitated large water droplets and small mice.
These levitating mice will allow the laboratory to study the effect of low gravity on animals. The laboratory also plans to study purely physical effects, such as two-phase pool boiling heat transfer and surface-tension- driven Marangoni convection.
SPEAKER -- Dr. Yuanming Liu received his BS in Physics from Beijing (Peking) University, China, and his PhD in Low-Temperature Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Washington. After graduation, he spent three years at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a postdoc, studying thermal and fluid physics in rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection. He joined Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1996 and is a senior member of technical staff in the Applied Low-Temperature Physics group in the Thermal and Cryogenic Engineering section. His research interests include quantum Physics near the Superfluid transition of liquid Helium in reduced gravity and in reduced dimensions, pool boiling heat transfer in reduced gravity, and applications of superconducting technologies. He is specialized in cryogenic engineering and spacecraft thermal design, analysis, and testing. Over the years he has worked for many JPL flight projects, such as the Low Temperature Microgravity Physics Facility (LTMPF), the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite (ACTS) Mobile Terminal (AMT), and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL).