On the Establishment of the Analysis and Verification Methods Regarding the Air Ventilation with Very Low Velocity in JEM (KIBO) as the First Manned Space Development in Japan

Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) called KIBO is the first manned space structure in Japan. Among several high technologies of JEM development, achievement of the air ventilation (AV) under the micro gravity was challenging because the requirements were very difficult to meet. The verification test in the module level under the operation of the flight hardware had a serious problem by the natural convection owing to the heat generation by the flight hardware. The analysis had problems how to verify its own validity because the turbulent flow around diffuser exits in addition to the laminar flowfield where the velocity is extremely small. This paper describes the solution of these problems in the analytical and testing verification points of view. As a result, we found our analysis applied to the AV performance could provide the complicated flowfield in low velocity with the effects of turbulent flow as well as natural convection. Since almost of the region in JEM showed that the velocity met the measured velocity in JPM which is a main element of JEM, we could verify that the analysis method is excellent to predict the AV flowfield in JPM. The scenario for the JEM AV development was successfully established and verified by the JEM development.