Characteristic Study on the Porous Reservoir of Liquid Lubricant in Space

Many moving mechanical assemblies for space mechanisms rely on liquid lubricants to provide performance. However, the loss of lubricant due to space environment may results in some moving mechanical assemblies don't work before the end of mission. So lifetime, many methods are applied to supply lubricant, one of these is porous reservoir. Porous reservoirs are widely used in small space mechanisms for their small volume, simple structure and low cost. They are desirable to maintain film thickness levels and oil distribution, so many researchers paid more attention to them. Centrifuging and heating can come into being lubricant transportation in reservoir. In this paper, the rule of lubricant transportation is analyzed on the influence of centrifuging and heating. Two experimental fixtures are designed to study the rule of lubricant transportation in porous reservoir.