Collaborating Through Data: Inside the PSI Users Group

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About the PSI Users Group

The Physical Sciences Informatics (PSI) Users Group is a recurring Webex forum that brings together researchers, open-science practitioners, and collaborators from across the physical sciences community. Designed to foster collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and data-driven discovery, each meeting provides participants with a platform to directly engage with leading researchers and PIs. Each month, a guest speaker is invited to present their physical sciences research, highlighting the experimental methods, findings, and the resulting datasets-all of which are accessible through the PSI database for further exploration. Through the featured presentations, the Users Group encourages interactive discussion, questions and networking, helping to build a engaged community dedicated to advancing open scientific research through use of NASA's PSI.

Reach out to PSI to learn more or request to be added to the mailing list, psi-join@lists.nasa.gov.

March Spotlight: "Cool Flames in Space"

Dr. Tanvir Farouk, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina and PSI-funded Principal Investigator, recently presented his research on an unusual form of combustion known as “cool flames.”

His grant, Effect of External Thermo-Convective Perturbation on Cool Flame Dynamics, leverages historic microgravity combustion data available through PSI. Analysis of data from the Flame Extinguishment Experiments (FLEX) revealed that certain fuel droplets can sustain long-lasting combustion without a visible flame. This behavior is driven by low-temperature chemical reactions and confirms the existence of stable, long-duration “cool flame” burning. Under normal Earth conditions, buoyancy-driven airflow disrupts these processes, limiting the time available for such phenomena to develop and making them difficult to study experimentally.

During the March 26 Users Group meeting, Dr. Farouk highlighted how advanced computational modeling has provided new insight into the complex interactions between chemical reactions and fluid dynamics that govern cool flame behavior. His work also outlines potential strategies for studying these phenomena under terrestrial conditions.
Data from Dr. Farouk’s research will be available in the PSI database (PSI-117) in the near future.

Click here to view the recording of the March PSI Users Group.

Upcoming Meetings

• Thursday, April 30 - 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Prof. Amir Riaz / University of Maryland
  • Topic: Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Mechanisms in Low Gravity: Numerical Experiments of MABE and NPBX Data
  • Summary: PSI-awarded research which used numerical simulations to analyze pool boiling heat transfer under microgravity conditions using experimental data from the 2011 MABE and NPBX experiments.
  • At the scheduled time, join the Webex here.
• Thursday, June 4 - 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Dr. Rick Weber & Dr. Stephen Wilke / Materials Development Inc. (MDI)
  • Topic: The Origin of Fragility in High-Temperature Oxide Liquids – Toward Fabrication of Novel Non-Equilibrium Oxides (ELF-6 PRONTO)
  • Summary: Microgravity research which used containerless processing to measure the thermophysical properties of molten metal oxides, revealing how liquid fragility, atomic structure, and glass-forming behavior are correlated in high-temperature oxide systems.
  • At the scheduled time, join the Webex here.
• Thursday, July 26 - 11AM
  • Guest Speaker: Prof. Anand Oza / New Jersey Institute of Technology
  • Topic: Phase Transitions in Colloid-Polymer Mixtures in Microgravity
  • Additional details coming soon.