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Gas flow within Martian soil: experiments on granular Knudsen compressors

Gas flow within Martian soil: experiments on granular Knudsen compressors Thermal creep efficiently transports gas through Martian soil. To quantify the Martian soil pump we carried out laboratory analog experiments with illuminated granular media at low ambient pressure. We used samples of 1 μm to 5 μm SiO2 (quartz), basalt with a broad size distribution between 63 μm and 125 μm, and JSC-Mars 1A with a size fraction from 125 μm to 250 μm. The mean ambient pressure was varied between 50 Pa and 9000 Pa. Illumination was varied between 100 W / m 2 $100~\mbox{W}/\mbox{m}^{2}$ and 6700 W / m 2 $6700~\mbox{W}/\mbox{m}^{2}$ . The experiments confirm strong directed gas flows within granular and dusty soil and local sub-soil pressure variations. We find that Martian soil pumps can be described with existing models of thermal creep for capillaries, using the average grain size and light flux related temperatures. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Astrophysics and Space Science Springer Journals

Gas flow within Martian soil: experiments on granular Knudsen compressors

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References (2)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
Subject
Physics; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Astronomy, Observations and Techniques; Cosmology; Space Sciences (including Extraterrestrial Physics, Space Exploration and Astronautics) ; Astrobiology
ISSN
0004-640X
eISSN
1572-946X
DOI
10.1007/s10509-017-3154-4
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Thermal creep efficiently transports gas through Martian soil. To quantify the Martian soil pump we carried out laboratory analog experiments with illuminated granular media at low ambient pressure. We used samples of 1 μm to 5 μm SiO2 (quartz), basalt with a broad size distribution between 63 μm and 125 μm, and JSC-Mars 1A with a size fraction from 125 μm to 250 μm. The mean ambient pressure was varied between 50 Pa and 9000 Pa. Illumination was varied between 100 W / m 2 $100~\mbox{W}/\mbox{m}^{2}$ and 6700 W / m 2 $6700~\mbox{W}/\mbox{m}^{2}$ . The experiments confirm strong directed gas flows within granular and dusty soil and local sub-soil pressure variations. We find that Martian soil pumps can be described with existing models of thermal creep for capillaries, using the average grain size and light flux related temperatures.

Journal

Astrophysics and Space Science – Springer Journals

Published: Aug 23, 2017

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