Rheology in space—A review of past and present ESA experiments

Gravity affects the flow and the behavior at rest of complex fluids by inducing sedimentation, drainage, and interfacial deformation, which can mask more fundamental physical processes. On Earth, standard countermeasures against gravity come with limitations in terms of possible formulations or the quality and homogeneity of the applied strain. Alternatively, one can run these experiments in free-fall where the effects of gravity are canceled, i.e., under microgravity conditions. In this Short Review, we present several European Space Agency (ESA)-led projects of interest to rheologists that leverage microgravity environments, including interfacial rheology experiments using capillary pressure tensiometers; Fundamental experiments on the coarsening of foams and the intrinsic dynamics and microrheology of emulsion droplets; Multiple granular materials investigations on the transition to jamming, fluidized beds, quasistatic and dilute granular flows; Experiments examining the thermally driven perturbation of soft colloidal glasses; And studies of the aggregation dynamics and migration of soft particles and red blood cells under flow. The microgravity conditions offered by the ESA platforms enabled high-precision measurements of interfacial viscoelasticity; revealed plastic rearrangements in colloidal glasses; detected roaming bubbles in foams, and underlined the progressive arrest of droplet motion in emulsions; uncovered margination effects in blood cell analogues under flow; and rationalized the impact of gravity on convection and fluidization in agitated granular matter. Collectively, these experiments demonstrate the complementarity and the relevance of ESA’s microgravity platforms in expanding the frontiers of soft matter rheology.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Rheology
Published
2026-04-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1122/8.0001074
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
10.15

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article

Rheology in space—A review of past and present ESA experiments

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Rheology in space—A review of past and present ESA experiments

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article en
1 citations

Abstract

Gravity affects the flow and the behavior at rest of complex fluids by inducing sedimentation, drainage, and interfacial deformation, which can mask more fundamental physical processes. On Earth, standard countermeasures against gravity come with limitations in terms of possible formulations or the quality and homogeneity of the applied strain. Alternatively, one can run these experiments in free-fall where the effects of gravity are canceled, i.e., under microgravity conditions. In this Short Review, we present several European Space Agency (ESA)-led projects of interest to rheologists that leverage microgravity environments, including interfacial rheology experiments using capillary pressure tensiometers; Fundamental experiments on the coarsening of foams and the intrinsic dynamics and microrheology of emulsion droplets; Multiple granular materials investigations on the transition to jamming, fluidized beds, quasistatic and dilute granular flows; Experiments examining the thermally driven perturbation of soft colloidal glasses; And studies of the aggregation dynamics and migration of soft particles and red blood cells under flow. The microgravity conditions offered by the ESA platforms enabled high-precision measurements of interfacial viscoelasticity; revealed plastic rearrangements in colloidal glasses; detected roaming bubbles in foams, and underlined the progressive arrest of droplet motion in emulsions; uncovered margination effects in blood cell analogues under flow; and rationalized the impact of gravity on convection and fluidization in agitated granular matter. Collectively, these experiments demonstrate the complementarity and the relevance of ESA’s microgravity platforms in expanding the frontiers of soft matter rheology.

Journal of RheologyVol. 70(3)
Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (FR), University of Parma (IT), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Université Libre de Bruxelles (BE), Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR), University of Cologne (DE), Institut Universitaire de France (FR), Institut Superieur de l'Aeronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO) (FR), Université de Montpellier (FR), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), European Space Agency (FR), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR) (DE), Sorbonne Université (FR), Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry and Technologies for Energy (IT), Géosciences Montpellier (FR), Laboratoire Charles Coulomb (FR), Sciences et Ingénierie de la Matière Molle (FR), Laboratoire Rhéologie et Procédés (FR), European Space Research and Technology Centre (NL), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR), ESPCI Paris (FR)
European Space Agency, Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies
10.15
DOISourceOpenAlex
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