Description With this project we propose an investigation into the behaviour of "lunar regolith" under the effect of vertical vibrations in a "3D" container. This project stems from an ongoing collaboration between MAE and the European Space Agency (ESA). In order to make future missions to the Moon and Mars more sustainable and prolong their duration, NASA, ESA and other agencies are working to identify the best ways to work with the readily available materials found on these planets, typically the local regolith.

The use of lunar regolith is hindered by its intrinsic nature, due to the material being made of many small, sharp and jagged particles, which makes its management (transfer from the surface of the Moon inside ‘containers’ or transport inside ‘pipes’) relatively difficult. The application of vibrations can cause the regolith to behave as a kind of ‘liquid’ thereby making its transport and utilization much easier.

This project aims to build on ongoing experimental effort in the department into this problem by investigating the effect of vertical vibrations on lunar regolith simulant samples in a relatively large (relative to the regolith grain size) "3D" container. The candidate will investigate the effects of various combinations of frequencies and amplitudes of vertically applied vibration applied to set depths of lunar regolith simulants in a "3D" container, while recording the resulting phenomena exhibited in the granular medium (fluid like motion, convection etc).

Relevant facilities and tools for this project are currently available in the laboratories of MAE. The current setup includes a high speed camera, a light source for material illumination and visualization, transparent containers with different sizes and shapes and a mechanism to generate vibrations with variable direction, frequency and amplitude.

There are also options with this project to go down a numerical simulation route in conjunction with the experimental work if the candidate has interest in this as the experimental effort currently being undertaken which will run in tandem with this project considers numerical simulation of the same conditions as the experiment using Ansys Rocky. Key Objectives

• To parametrically investigate the effect of a range of frequency's and amplitudes of vertically applied vibration in a 3D container with two different set depths of lunar regolith simulant, while recording the observed phenomena using the high speed camera.

• To visually and numerically evaluate the differences in the observed phenomena caused by different vibration parameters using various techniques such as image processing.

• If time allows the candidate will also be able to move on to investigate the effect of inclined vibrations (45deg etc).