Speaker
Description
This paper seeks to review the understanding of the forces acting on dust particles, how these affect their behaviour, how we can measure and quantify these, and what the consequences are especially if we are trying to run real-world simulations in different gravity and fluid fields or absence thereof (e.g. Earth atmosphere, Earth vacuum, Lunar exosphere).
Specifically, forces due to gravity, electrostatics, fluid drag and van der Waals effects will be addressed. The paper will begin with a review of the origins of these forces, their relative strength and range of action. Methods for measuring them and quantifying them will be covered, including some recent work on a novel method known as the “Mechanical Surface Energy Test”.
The issue of how these forces are likely to affect the behaviour of dust in low and micro-gravity environments will then be addressed, including in the development of critical equipment required to establish a functioning lunar economy, and the testing of this equipment in Earth-bound laboratories. Some early work to illustrate this challenge will also be demonstrated.
