THE PROPOSED RESEARCH ON GAS-LIQUID TWO-PHASE FLOWS THROUGH PACKED BEDS IN MICROGRAVITY IS IN SUPPORT OF THE PACKED BED REACTOR EXPERIMENT (PBRE) CURRENTLY UNDERWAY ABOARD THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (ISS). THE GOALS OF THE PROPOSED WORK AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON ARE TO (I) ANALYZE PRESSURE AND VIDEO DATA OBTAINED FROM THE ISS EXPERIMENTS (II) VALIDATE AND/OR UPDATE THE MODELS FOR PREDICTING PRESSURE DROP WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE PRACTICAL REGION OF LOW GAS AND LIQUID FLOW RATES (III) PROVIDE A FLOW REGIME MAP FOR THE AIR-WATER SYSTEM WITH EMPHASIS ON THE EFFECTS DUE TO THE WETTABILITY OF THE PACKING BY THE LIQUID (IV) EXAMINE PULSE CHARACTERISTICS AND THE IMPACT OF GRAVITY ON PULSE FLOW.

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