Observations on the burning of droplets in the absence of buoyancy
?The first stages of an experimental study on droplet burning at zero gravity are described. Motivations for the work are to investigate transient burning and effects of finite-rate chemistry, in a geometrical configuration sufficiently simple for theoretical analyses to be performed in detail and checked against experiment. Two possible approaches to the experimental problem are to establish burning in a freely falling chamber in a drop tower and to perform the experiments in a research facility in space, such as spacelab. The work reported here concerns the drop-tower experiments. The design of these experiments is discussed, and preliminary results of the experimental program are given. Critical problems in drop-tower testing of this kind, especially timing problems that arise in this particular experiment, are emphasized.