Simulating vibrated fluids and vibroequilibria in the CFVib microgravity experiment

Abstract

The CFVib experiment investigated the use of piezoelectric actuators to manipulate fluids via the vibroequilibria effect. A model is developed to simulate fluid behaviour in this experiment, including interaction with the container and piezoelectrics. Since vibroequilibria evolve slowly compared to the applied forcing, a separation of timescales is used to obtain a linear problem on the fast timescale whose solution provides a quasisteady source term driving slow vibroequilibria dynamics. We find that the surface adopts different vibroequilibria depending on the selected mode of vibration. Simulations show good agreement with experiments and suggest a potential strategy for manipulating fluids in weightlessness.