미소 중력 환경을 위한 표면 장력 탱크 내 유동 연구 동향

When a spacecraft moves with reduced or micro gravity condition in the space, propellant in the tank floats around and can be supplied to engine with pressurant gas causing severe performance loss. Surface tension tank utilizes surface tension of the liquid propellant on flow path to prevent gas ingestion and deliver the single phase liquid fuel to the engine. The surface tension tank has been developed from advanced countries in aerospace field. Korea also needs to start research of surface tension tank for its own space exploration plan in the future. In this paper, existing studies about gas and liquid flow in surface tension tank were categorized into four parts; bubble point test, flow analysis in propellant management system(PMD), wicking test, and sloshing analysis, and each research trend was investigated. It can be used as preliminary data for domestic research of surface tension tank.