TitanAir Cuspoid Channel Test
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Capillary flow toy based on "cuspoid" cross-sections. One day these channels may help drink in rain from another planet!
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Model information
- Source
- Printables
- Category
- Engineering
- License
- Creative Commons — Public Domain
Our new "cuspoid" channel for the TitanAir NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Phase I study. This capillary toy is a test of how this geometry works with PLA and water, and is great for educational purposes!
After over two-dozen prototype failures we've gone back to the drawing board and -- using a first-principles approach -- have developed a very small "cuspoid" channel that can potentially be etched into a permeable section of airplane skin to coalesce and transport methane rain on another planet. For more on the project, visit https://titanair.fyi/
The channel consists of a 0.20 mm wide rectangular groove which transitions into a cusp (the intersection of two 2-mm-radius cylinders, spaced 0.20 mm apart) as we move up the cross-section, and finishes in a 20-degree V-groove. This gives the maximum chance for a fluid finger to form in the small channel and cusp area (in order to initiate spontaneous capillary flow), while allowing for high volume flow rates with the V-groove once the system is filled (good draining performance as seen with the paper towel acting as a capillary pump in the video).