JAPAN-EUROPE COLLABORATIVE DROPLET ARRAY COMBUSTION EXPERIMENT IN MICROGRAVITY ONBOARD TEXUS-46-TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENTS AND PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC RESULTS

A microgravity combustion experiment was performed on a partially pre-vaporized droplet array in November 2009, by the flight of TEXUS 46 sounding rocket, which was launched from the Esrange launch site in northern Sweden. The flight experiment was performed as a collaborative mission of JAXA and ESA. The Droplet Array Combustion Unit (DCU) was developed by JAXA and finally integrated as Japanese Combustion Module (JCM) to be installed into the TEXUS rocket. In the flight experiment, flame spread behavior of n-decane droplet arrays was observed with different degree of pre-vaporization. Also, collection of combustion gas samples during the flight was performed for gas composition analysis on the ground. In this paper, technical achievements of the DCU as well as preliminary scientific results are reported.