Effect of G-jitter on the thermocapillary convection experiment in ISS

Effects of g-jitter on the measurement of dynamic surface deformations (DSD) caused by the oscillatory thermocapillary convection in a liquid bridge have been studied experimentally. A vibration table driven by a piezoelectric actuator is constructed to generate g-jitters of realistic amplitude and frequency spectra. A microimaging displacement meter is used to measure DSD in the presence of g-jitter. It is shown that the natural DSD in the oscillatory state of thermocapillary convection is well separated in the frequency domain from that caused by harmonic and non-harmonic g-jitters. It is concluded that the DSD measurement in the future ISS experiment is feasible even in the presence of g-jitter there.