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Updated: Jun 28, 2026

Reduced-gravity Environment Hardware Demonstrations of a Prototype Miniaturized Flow Cytometer and Companion Microfluidic Mixing Technology
Published on: November 13, 2014
Demonstration of the effect of stirring on nucleation from experiments on the International Space Station using the
A K Gangopadhyay1, M E Sellers2, G P Bracker3
1Department of Physics and the Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, USA, St. Louis, MO. anup@wuphys.wustl.edu.
Abstract:
The effect of fluid flow on crystal nucleation in supercooled liquids is not well understood. The variable density and temperature gradients in the liquid make it difficult to study this under terrestrial gravity conditions. Nucleation experiments were therefore made in a microgravity environment using the Electromagnetic Levitation Facility on the International Space Station on a bulk glass-forming Zr57Cu15.4Ni12.6Al10Nb5 (Vit106), as well as Cu50Zr50 and the quasicrystal-forming Ti39.5Zr39.5Ni21 liquids. The maximum supercooling temperatures for each alloy were measured as a function of controlled stirring by applying various combinations of radio-frequency positioner and heater voltages to the water-cooled copper coils. The flow patterns were simulated from the known parameters for the coil and the levitated samples. The maximum nucleation temperatures increased systematically with increased fluid flow in the liquids for Vit106, but stayed nearly unchanged for the other two. These results are consistent with the predictions from the Coupled-Flux model for nucleation.
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