1D and 3D co-simulation and self-adaptive position control of electrostatic levitation in China's Space Station

Peng Zhang; Yang Zhang; Zile Wang; Yang Wang; Mao Li; Ran Niu; Li Liang; Wenju Yang; Ming Gao; Hongen Zhong; Xuzhi Li; Jianding Yu

doi:10.1038/s41526-022-00215-6

1D and 3D co-simulation and self-adaptive position control of electrostatic levitation in China's Space Station

NPJ Microgravity. 2022 Aug 2;8(1):29. doi: 10.1038/s41526-022-00215-6.

Authors

Peng Zhang¹, Yang Zhang¹, Zile Wang¹, Yang Wang¹, Mao Li¹, Ran Niu¹, Li Liang¹, Wenju Yang¹, Ming Gao², Hongen Zhong¹, Xuzhi Li¹, Jianding Yu³

Affiliations

¹ Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
² Technology and Engineering Center for Space Utilization, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. mgao@csu.ac.cn.
³ State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, China Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

The greatest challenge of electrostatic levitation for containerless material processing is the stable control of charged material during heating. Recently, high-precision self-adaptive control of electrostatic levitation has been achieved in China's Space Station. Based on the 1D and 3D co-simulation analysis, an optimal scheduling of control strategies of sample release and retrieval in space is developed. Both simulation results and on-orbit experiments demonstrated that the inversion of surface charge is responsible for the heating induced material instability. On-orbit experiments indicated that under laser illuminations, the net surface charge of metal Zr changed from positive to negative at 900 K and from negative to positive at 1300 K. The possible physical mechanism of the charge inversion of heated material is discussed.