Agnirva Space Premier League - Expedition #32209: Dancing Flames in Microgravity: Studying Oscillatory Airflow on Flame Spread

Picture a candle flame flickering in a gentle breeze. Now imagine that happening in space, where gravity doesn’t play its usual role. How would the flame react? The Solid Fuel Ignition and Extinction - Oscillatory Flow on Flame Spread (SOFFS) experiment explores exactly that, investigating how fluctuating airflows—like small gusts—affect how flames behave in microgravity.

Flames in space are strange—they’re more spherical and less vigorous. Air doesn’t naturally circulate around them, so scientists have to introduce airflow deliberately. This experiment adds another twist: the airflow isn’t steady. It oscillates back and forth, simulating real-world conditions astronauts might face due to ventilation systems or crew movement.

Led by Dr. James Urban at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, this NASA-backed project helps uncover how flames spread when airflow pulses rather than flows steadily. It helps answer questions like: Does this increase fire risk? Can it make flames spread faster or extinguish more easily?

The answers are key for spacecraft design. By knowing how flames respond to changing airflow, engineers can design safer ventilation systems and more effective fire suppression tools.

More broadly, this research contributes to our understanding of combustion physics. It helps build predictive models that can simulate flame behavior under different airflow conditions, both in space and on Earth. This has implications not just for space missions, but also for improving fire safety in buildings, aircraft, and submarines.

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