Monday, April 14th, 2014 | 6:00 pm to 7.45 pm - Big Drops, Big bubbles, Small Gravity - Fluids Hand

[Charles Radley]

Monday, April 14th, 2014 | 6:00 pm to 7.45 pm 

Big Drops, Big bubbles, Small Gravity - Fluids Handling without Gravity

Prof Mark Weislogel from Portland State University

North Portland Library

512 N Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97217

We can continue afterwards in the Chapel Pub across the street.

Meet Professor Mark Weislogel

Mark Weislogel, Professor

Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1996

Department of Mechanical I really caught the vision and the potential of this university," he says.

His research is about finding methods to improve the transport of fluids within a variety of systems and devices. The fluids often must travel through highly angular geometries unlike those found in nature. Weislogel and his students study conduits of different shapes, and test their theories by sending them into zero-g, whether in NASA drop towers, low-g aircraft, the Space Shuttle, or the International Space Station.

Space is the perfect training ground for many engineering pursuits. Weislogel provides undergraduates opportunity through the LaunchPSU program, a NASA co-sponsored program in which students send high altitude balloons with mission specific instrumentation into the limits of the atmosphere. It's great fun, and highly instructional.

"Just like any 'launch', you really only get one shot. So you have to rely more on planning and analysis than for more typical designs where one could exploit trial and error more effectively. However, we use some of the latter from time to time too," he says