Combustion studies aboard the International Space Station: Planned experiments and facilities

The Fluids and Combustion Facility (FCF) is a payload planned for the International Space Station. The facility is designed to accommodate a wide variety of investigations encompassing the range of microgravity fluid physics and combustion science. The combustion areas that may be studied include laminar flames, reaction kinetics, droplet and spray combustion, flame spread, fire and fire suppressants, condensed phase organic fuel combustion, turbulent combustion, soot and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, materials synthesis, and detonations and explosions. The initial experiments will study droplet combustion and solid fuel flammability, ignition, and transition to flame spread. The Combustion Integrated Rack component of the FCF is currently scheduled to be launched in 2002 and will operate independently until the FCF is complete in 2003. The FCF is intended to complete between five and fifteen combustion experiments per year over its planned ten-year lifetime.