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Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 034502 (2005) [4 pages]

High-Frequency Driven Capillary Flows Speed Up the Gas-Liquid Phase Transition in Zero-Gravity Conditions

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Daniel Beysens1, Denis Chatain1, Pierre Evesque2, and Yves Garrabos3
1ESEME, Service des Basses Températures, Commissariat à I’Energie Atomique, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France and Ecole Supérieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle, 10 rue Vauquelin, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
2Lab MSSMat, Ecole Centrale de Paris, UMR 8579 CNRS, 92295 Châtenay-Malabry Cedex, France
3ESEME, Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, CNRS UPR 9048, 87 avenue du Docteur A. Schweitzer, 33608 Pessac Cedex, France

Received 7 January 2004; revised 20 April 2005; published 14 July 2005

Under weightlessness conditions, the phase transition of fluids is driven only by slow capillary flows. We investigate the effect of high-frequency vibrations to reproduce some features of gravity effects and show that such vibrations can greatly modify the phase transition kinetics. The investigation is performed in H2 near its critical point (critical temperature 33 K) where critical slowing down enables the phase transition process to be carefully studied. Gravity effects are compensated in a strong magnetic field gradient.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.034502
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.034502
PACS:
47.20.−k, 64.60.−i, 64.70.Fx
 
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