NSF and ISS Lab to Study Metal Powder Melting in Microgravity

The NSF and the ISS National Laboratory selected a project led by Patricia Weisensee of Washington University in St. Louis to study how metal powder particles melt and mix in microgravity, aiming to build better models of defects in metal additive manufacturing. A second project will examine two-phase flow boiling for electronics cooling.

• Weisensee's project removes buoyancy-driven flows to isolate surface tension effects
• Goal is accurate particle-melting models to reduce defects in printed metal parts
• Second project led by Chen Li will study slip ratio in microgravity two-phase flows
• NSF has funded nearly 100 ISS projects and over 350 peer-reviewed papers