Speaker: Mike Yeksel

Advisor: Dr. Boris Khusid

Experiments performed in microgravity aboard the NASA research aircraft KC-135 and on the ground in order to evaluate the effect of gravity on particle motion in a dielectrophoretic device. Experiments were conducted in a channel slowly rotated around its horizontal axis to simulate weightlessness, called a clinostat, in which a dilute suspension of heavy, positively polarized particles was exposed to a high-gradient strong ac electric field. The particles were accumulated in the regions of high field gradient by positive dielectrophoresis. It was found that rotation in a clinostat did not replicate the zero gravity morphology of the aggregation pattern due to the effect of rotating gravity force.