PSI recordPSI-107Investigation dossier

SPICE

Smoke Point In Co-flow Experiment

Principal investigator: David Urban
Platform: International Space Station (ISS)
Hardware: Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG)
Dates: not stated in PSI record
Licence: CC0-1.0
PSI version: v4 · modified 02-Jun-2025
Publications listed: 9

PSI record (opens in a new tab)doi 10.60555/9kbh-e962 (opens in a new tab)psi.nasa.gov/physci/repo/data/investigations/PSI-107

Evidence proximity, not a safety rating. This page describes what was tested and where each value comes from.

Footprint · Microgravity

Where SPICE’s runs sit in condition space, in the Atlas chart window. Other investigations’ runs in this regime are dimmed.

0 of 469 runs drawn · 469 runs without O₂ or pressure are not drawn.

Source: NASA PSI run tables (snapshot 2026-11-14) and the published papers listed under Sources. Evidence proximity, not a safety rating; not a hazard map.

Objective

As written in the PSI record:

The objective of SPICE is to better understand the complex process of combustion by observing flames in a microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and analogous ground experiments. Specific objectives were: (1) Identify the laminar smoke-point properties of non-buoyant jet diffusion flames under various co-flow conditions in microgravity. (2) Determine the effects of burner diameter and co-flow velocity on the luminous flame lengths and smoke points. (3) Quantify the sooting propensity of different fuels, such as ethylene, propane, and propylene mixtures. (4) Validate the correlation between luminous flame shape and residence time under microgravity conditions. (5) Investigate the impact of air and fuel flow rate variations on smoke point phenomena in space.

Fingerprint COMPUTED

Computed from the 469 run rows below: what varied, what was held constant, and what was never recorded.

Varied

Flow 0.7–85.3 cm/s · 60 levels · measured
Fuel Rate (sccm) · 284 values
Fuel Rate (mg/s) · 275 values
HC Fuel Rate (mg/s) · 269 values
GMT ignition · 151 values
GMT Flame Off · 143 values
Air Rate (cm/s) · 62 values
GMT date · 11 values
Fuel · 7 values
+1 more source columns

Held constant

nothing held constant

Not recorded

O₂ no o₂ column in the PSI table
Pressure no pressure column in the PSI table
Flow missing in 33 of 469 rows · “Air Rate (cm/s)” only — no cm/s value

Condition axes: what varied and what was held constant
Axis	State	Range	Basis	Recorded
O₂	not recorded	no o₂ column in the PSI table	not recorded	0/469
Pressure	not recorded	no pressure column in the PSI table	not recorded	0/469
Flow	varied	0.7–85.3 cm/s · 60 levels	measured	436/469

Placeable: 0 of 469 record O₂ and can be placed (the engine can compute a distance); 0 also record pressure and appear on the charts. Not placeable: 469: no O₂ value recorded in the source row.
Gravity: Microgravity (469)
Fuel classes: Gas jet (469)
Flow regime: co-flow (469)
Materials (7): Propylene (122) · 75 % Propylene (119) · 50 % Propylene (111) · Propane (50) · Ethylene (47) · 75% Propylene (16) · Methane (4)
Outcomes: not recorded (469)
Measured quantities: none normalized beyond O₂, pressure and flow
Data-quality flags: missing × 469: At least one of O₂, pressure or flow is not recorded in the source row.
duplicate-row × 34: This row duplicates another row in the source table.
out-of-range × 8: A value lies outside the physically expected range; it is kept as recorded.

Where the runs sit: O₂ × pressure, zoomed to the data

Nothing from this investigation can be placed on an O₂ × pressure chart: 469 runs: no O₂ value recorded in the source row.

Source: the normalized O₂ and pressure of each run in the run table below (NASA PSI run tables or the cited paper); the original cell and any conversion are in each run’s provenance. Reference atmospheres are MARGIN’s presets. Not a hazard map.

Run table

Normalized values with the original cell beneath each. Inspect a row for its conversions, flags, source and distance to your scenario.

SPICE: 469 runs from PSI-107_Experimental table_Spice.csv, showing the first 50.

SPICE: 469 runs. Each value cell shows the normalized value and, beneath it, the original cell as it appears in the source.
Row	Material	Fuel class	g	O₂ %	Pressure kPa	Flow cm/s	Outcome	Flags
1	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	36.4co-flow36.39	not recorded	missing
2	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	36.4co-flow36.39	not recorded	duplicate-row, missing
3	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	40.1co-flow40.15	not recorded	missing
4	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	40.1co-flow40.15	not recorded	missing
5	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	57.1co-flow57.08	not recorded	missing
6	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	57.1co-flow57.08	not recorded	duplicate-row, missing
7	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	57.1co-flow57.08	not recorded	missing
8	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	58.0co-flow58.02	not recorded	missing
9	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	58.0co-flow58.02	not recorded	duplicate-row, missing
10	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	missing
11	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	duplicate-row, missing
12	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	16.6co-flow16.65	not recorded	missing
13	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	16.6co-flow16.65	not recorded	duplicate-row, missing
14	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	33.6co-flow33.57	not recorded	missing
15	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	33.6co-flow33.57	not recorded	missing
16	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	34.5co-flow34.51	not recorded	missing
17	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	35.5co-flow35.45	not recorded	missing
18	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	58.0co-flow58.02	not recorded	missing
19	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	59.0co-flow58.96	not recorded	missing
20	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	57.1co-flow57.08	not recorded	missing
21	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	57.1co-flow57.08	not recorded	missing
22	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	missing
23	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	18.5co-flow18.53	not recorded	missing
24	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	16.6co-flow16.65	not recorded	missing
25	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	16.6co-flow16.65	not recorded	missing
26	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	35.5co-flow35.45	not recorded	missing
27	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	35.5co-flow35.45	not recorded	missing
28	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	35.5co-flow35.45	not recorded	missing
29	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	58.0co-flow58.02	not recorded	missing
30	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	not recordedco-flow—	not recorded	missing
31	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	missing
32	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	16.6co-flow16.65	not recorded	missing
33	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	15.7co-flow15.71	not recorded	missing
34	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	15.7co-flow15.71	not recorded	missing
35	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	15.7co-flow15.71	not recorded	missing
36	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	missing
37	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	missing
38	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	17.6co-flow17.59	not recorded	missing
39	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	16.6co-flow16.65	not recorded	missing
40	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	15.7co-flow15.71	not recorded	missing
41	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	15.7co-flow15.71	not recorded	missing
42	Ethylene	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	15.7co-flow15.71	not recorded	missing
43	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	43.0co-flow42.97	not recorded	missing
44	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	not recordedco-flow—	not recorded	missing
45	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	46.7co-flow46.73	not recorded	missing
46	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	45.8co-flow45.79	not recorded	missing
47	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	46.7co-flow46.73	not recorded	missing
48	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	not recordedco-flow—	not recorded	missing
49	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	35.5co-flow35.45	not recorded	missing
50	Propane	Gas jet	µg	not recorded—	not recorded—	35.5co-flow35.45	not recorded	missing

Investigation dossier

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Reading the record, its runs and their sources.