Microgravity Sci. Technol.
(2014) 26:131–138
DOI 10.1007/s12217-014-9391-z
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Granular Flow Under Microgravity: A Preliminary Review
Yu Huang · Chongqiang Zhu · Xiang Xiang
Received: 29 October 2013 / Accepted: 3 September 2014 / Published online: 21 September 2014
© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014
Abstract The complex macroscopic rheological behavior
of granular flow contains elements of both solid and liq-
uid flow. Furthermore, under microgravity, granular flow
exhibits novel flow features. To overcome a lack of com-
prehensive analyses of granular flow under microgravity,
this study reviews the microgravity platforms and devices
under which granular flow can be observed, the experi-
mental findings made in such settings, and the range of
numerical simulations that can be used to examine gran-
ular flow under microgravity. Differences in experimental
research between normal gravity and microgravity are high-
lighted. These differences are found in the modifications
made to conventional granular flow experimental devices,
in new or unique granular flow behaviors, and in the numer-
ical simulation methods needed for microgravity modeling.
Additionally, the benefits of numerical simulation methods
for examining rapid and dense flows under microgravity are
also discussed. This study may have wide-ranging implica-
tions in such fields as investigations of the surface geology
of asteroids or the efficient design and development of
anchoring mechanisms or space vehicles.
Keywords Microgravity · Granular flow · Phase
transform · Microstructure
Y. Huang ()
Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering
of the Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092,
China
e-mail: yhuang@tongji.edu.cn
Y. Huang · C. Zhu · X. Xiang
Department of Geotechnical Engineering, College of Civil
Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Introduction
Granular materials are complex systems formed by the
interaction of a large number of discrete solid particles,
generally with diameters >1 µm. Granular materials are
widespread; most common examples include non-cohesive
soil, clay, silt, coal and various raw materials widely
used in the chemical industry. Even lunar soil and the
regolith of other planets and moons are typical granular
materials.
Geotechnical materials often consist of granular aggre-
gates such as sand, silt, gravel, and soil, and geological
disasters like avalanches, landslides, and mudslides often
exhibit granular flow behaviors. The regolith of asteroids
have a kind of typical granular materials that have been
developed by impact of other asteroids; tidal forces and the
Yorp effect lead to changes – or even reversals – in shear
stress. The geotechnical materials covering the surface of
the asteroid, Itokawa, are produced by a granular convection
process (Miyamoto et al. 2007), which actually is the main
geological process at work on asteroids.
Microgravity environments provide us with a novel
ground for studying the mechanical properties of granular
flow. The complexity of granular fluids is related to the
unique characteristics of its static and dynamic mechanic
properties; these characteristics include the granary effect,
phase transforms and the Brazil nut effect (Masson et al.
2000; Esipov et al. 1997; Möbius et al. 2001). Granu-
lar flow in a microgravity environment is quite different
from granular flow in a conventional gravity setting and
observes a series of new rheological behavior. Moreover,
the rapid development of space exploration will require the
space vehicles landing on the asteroids surface covered with
132
granular materials. Therefore, it is significant to figure out
the rheological behavior of granular flow which will provide
preliminary advice for the design of space vehicles and then
keep the landing stable (Brucks et al. 2008).
Because of the scarcity and high cost of accessing a
microgravity environment – combined with the complexity
of conducting a granular flow experiment in a short time—
studies of granular flow in microgravity are rare. Those
experiments that have been conducted have focused on the
stress-strain relationships, the angle of repose, avalanche
angle and length, and a few other physical characteris-
tics; however, none has examined new rheological behav-
ior of granular flow under microgravity. The lack of a
systematic summary or study of the effects of micrograv-
ity on granular flow possibly will hinder future research
progress.
This paper summarizes previous researches on granu-
lar flow under microgravity, including the testing platforms
and devices used, and some new rheological behavior of
granular flow under microgravity. We propose two novel
methods of numerical simulation that have been specifi-
cally established for this research that can be used to verify
the rheological behavior of granular flow under micrograv-
ity. This will help to: (1)facilitate familiarity with the latest
research into granular flow under microgravity, (2) improve
understanding of new behaviors of granular flow under
microgravity and, by extension, on the surface of other
planetary bodies, and (3) develop an efficient design for
an anchoring mechanism or space vehicles, while consid-
ering the interaction with the surface of regolith covered
bodies.
Table 1 Contrast between principal microgravity platforms (based on Thomas et al. 2000)
Microgravity equipment Microgravity duration Microgravity level
Space station, Recoverable a few years in Space 10−5 − 10−6 g
satellite station, a few days to a
few years in satellites
Manned spacecraft, space 5-10 days 10−4 − 10−5 g
shuttle
Sounding rocket 5-10 minutes 10−3 − 10−4 g
Parabolic flight aircraft 20-30s 10−2 − 10−4 g
Drop balloon 30-60 s 10−2 − 10−4 g
Drop Tower (or Drop well) 1-10 s 10−2 − 10−5 g
Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2014) 26:131–138
Granular Flow Test Platforms and Devices
Under Microgravity
Microgravity refers to gravitational accelerations that are
significantly less than Earth’s conventional gravity (1g=
980cm/s 2 ). Strictly, this means that the effective grav-
ity must be less than or equal to 10−6 g. Because of the
extremely low level of effective gravity, the effect produced
by gravity on a granular flow can be eliminated. Currently
microgravity can be obtained by numerous means, such as
a test in a space station, a satellite, a parabolic flight air-
craft a microgravity rocket, an altitude balloon, and a drop
tower (or drop well). The differences between these means
are listed in Table 1.
To choose which of the various means listed above
should be used, experimental costs, the experimental cycle,
the duration of microgravity required, and microgravity
level should be considered. The contrasts between prin-
cipal microgravity platforms are shown in Table 1. In
addition to choosing the right test means to provide a suit-
able microgravity environment for conducting advanced
research, an appropriate experimental device for granular
flow under microgravity is equally significant. The com-
mon granular flow test devices include impact devices
such as the COLLIDE Impactor Box System used to
figure out the response of very low velocity collisions
into a modelled regolith (Colwell 1999, 2003), the oscil-
lating granular damper system adopted to evaluate the
effectiveness of dissipate energy by particles collisions in
reduced gravity (Bannerman et al. 2011) and the low-
velocity collision box developed to study the interactions
Advantages Shortcomings
providing stable microgravity test opportunities are
environment with long relatively rare; expensive
microgravity duration and
good microgravity level;
satellites are recoverable
providing superior microgravity test opportunities are
environment; the space shuttle relatively rare; expensive
is recyclable
relatively cheap;used for relative poor stability
pretest
several experiments can be relative poor stability
conducted in one flight
relatively cheap and reusable relative poor stability
relatively cheap and reusable relative poor stability and
short duration
Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2014) 26:131–138
of dust particles (Blum 2010); common granular flow
tests such as the plane shear flow test, the Taylor-
Couette shear test (Baran et al. 2006; Bossis et al. 2004;
Rozitis et al. 2009), the silo discharge test, the inclined
planar flow test (Huang et al. 2013b), the hourglass test
(Brucks et al. 2008), the rotating drum test (Rajchenbach
1990) and some other tests are also included. The six typi-
cal granular tests can be divided into confined flow test and
free surface flow test (GDR MiDi 2004). Plane shear flow
test, Taylor-Couette shear test and silo discharge test belong
to the confined flow test, and others are free surface flow
test. The plane shear test is the simplest experiment to study
the rheological behavior of granular flow. Granular materi-
als filled between two parallel rough plates are sheared by
the motion of one plate. The Taylor-Couette shear test is
conducted in a cell composed of two concentric cylinders.
The outer cylinder is fixed, while the inner cylinder is free to
rotate. Shear stress is applied to the granular material filled
in the gap between cylinders by the rotation of inner cylin-
der. The experiment can study the time to start a steady state
flow, behavior of steady flow and memory effect of sheared
particles. The silo discharge test has been widely studied
considering its extensive application. In this test, granular
material flow out of an aperture at the bottom of silo toward
reservoir. The flow rate, response angle and particle veloc-
ity can be measured. The inclined planar flow test has been
widely used in geophysical engineering. The duration, the
maximum slop angle, the impact force and the configura-
tion can be recorded during the experiment. In hourglass
test, the angle of response, the crater angel and the volume
flux can be observed. The free surface of granular material
for different rotation speeds of cylinder can be obtained in
the rotating drum test. The aforementioned tests are essen-
tial to reveal the rheological behavior of granular materials
under reduced gravity from the point view of laboratory
experiment.
A traditional granular flow experimental apparatus is not
suitable for microgravity platforms. Often, some modifi-
cation is required for them. Current microgravity experi-
ments must consider the following points: residual gravity
fluctuations and vibrations, vacuum and low-temperature
apparatus.
Residual Gravity Fluctuations and Vibrations
At present, most granular flow experiments under micro-
gravity are carried out in parabolic flights and drop towers;
only a few are conducted in microgravity rocket or space
station environments, with the details shown in Table 1. In
parabolic flights and drop tower tests, there still is often
significant residual gravity and residual gravity fluctua-
tion (up to 10−2 g). Some granular flow processes are very
133
sensitive to residual gravity and gravity fluctuations. In the
space station, for example, some special phenomena called
gravity jitter are caused by changes in the position of stars
and aircraft. Because of its relative inaccessibility, such
platforms will not be discussed further in this paper.
Vibrations are found in the lifting and upgrading pro-
cesses of drop towers and parabolic flights, which may
cause difficulties in the stability of granular flow during data
collection.
To ensure that a gravity wave is positive and to solve
for the small negative residual gravity values, some meth-
ods, such as using a sprung-loaded movable pressure disk
to provide a small force in a preferred direction to simulate
the effect of very low positive gravity, which is equal to the
maximum amplitude of gravity oscillation, can be applied
(Murdoch et al. 2013a). Meanwhile, there are some ways
to avoid vibrations, including isolating the model box from
vibrations by using silent blocks (Murdoch et al. 2013b).
More shock devices are expected to modify conventional
granular flow to fit the microgravity environment.
Vacuum and Low-temperature Apparatus
Current space environments can be used to achieve some
particle flow simulations. For example, such environments
enable actual granular flow simulations that might occur in
outer space – such as for Saturn ring research or for surface
granular flow on an asteroid. In addition to microgravity,
vacuum and low-temperature (as low as 140 K) environ-
ments are required for some current rapid flow experiments.
If done on Earth, the experimental device generally needs
to be placed in a vacuum chamber that can avoid any heat
transfer and air flow.
Because liquid Nitrogen (N2 ) is not generally allowed
aboard any aircraft, cooling to such extreme temperatures
must be done in some other way, such as a thermal reser-
voir, which is cooled by liquid N2 spiraling through a copper
tube wound around a copper block and attached to a liquid
N2 fed through at the lower edge of the vacuum chamber
(Blum 2010).
In order to prevent particles from flying out of the top,
the cover is one of the elements that must be considered.
Meanwhile, the development of a new microgravity plat-
form, such as a suspension simulation system or air-bearing
simulation system may also help to the research of granular
flow, even though now they are labeled unstable and impre-
cise. Moreover, the large diameter centrifuge is introduced
to study the discharge of a planar monolayer of grains under
microgravity carried out by horizontal rotation with constant
speed (Dorbolo et al. 2011, 2013). This method can create
stable microgravity environment, but the application is lim-
ited. By using magnetic resonance imaging, X-rays and
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high-speed photographic methods, PIV and other means,
the particles’ positions, speeds and other information can be
obtained.
Experimental Investigation of Granular Flow
Under Microgravity
From the point of view of fluid mechanics, granular sys-
tems subjected to Earth’s gravitational environment usually
exhibit common phenomena such as convection caused by
gravity and vibration, density stratification, and density
alteration during flow. However, these effects are almost
eliminated under microgravity. This leads to a simplification
of flow structure that assists in investigations of the nature of
particle interaction and the effect of the absence of gravity.
Several new behaviors of granular flow under microgravity
are introduced in the experimental study presented here.
Flow Phase Transformation
Granular flow falls into two categories, rapid flow which is
dominant by binary collisions, and dense flow that governed
by many-granular interactions as the particles have enduring
contacts with surrounding particles (Corwin 2008). Mean-
while, dense flow is divided into slow dense low and rapid
dense flow. The inertia of particles is negligible to slow
dense flow, while rapid dense flow is dominated by inertia
(Rozitis et al. 2009). In reduced gravity, the dense flow may
turn into rapid flow considering the microgravity reduced
the possibility of collisional dense flow into a slower and
denser flow (Louge et al. 2000). The slow dense flow in nor-
mal gravity may move to the rapid dense flow in reduced
gravity provided that the kinetic energy of particles is same
in both situations (Rozitis et al. 2009). The transformation
is reasonable due to the inertia of particles no longer being
negligible. Therefore, under microgravity, but with specific
conditions kept the same, a slow dense flow may transform
into a rapid dense flow, and a dense flow may turn into a
rapid flow. A granular flow is essentially a kind of discrete
shear movement. The shear stress in granular flow primarily
consists of the Coulomb friction forces, the dissipative con-
tact forces and the collision forces. Coulomb friction forces
dominate for a granular flow with a low shear rate and a
high concentration, and they are proportional to the normal
stress.
In microgravity environment, granular flow is free
because of the absence of gravity that otherwise would
provide the normal stress. Also, Coulomb friction forces
decrease greatly because time dissipative contact forces
dominate. This also means that freer shear movement
will occur. This has been confirmed by experimentation
Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2014) 26:131–138
(Rozitis et al. 2009), where the rolling direction in the
Taylor-Couette shear test is inverted after the formation of
stable granular flow. The ground test shows that the times
needed to form the first and second stable granular flows are
both short. While in a microgravity environment, if the shear
rate of first stable granular flow is relatively large, the sys-
tem will be quickly destroyed when the rolling direction is
inverted. Also, with the absence of gravitational force bonds
in a system, shearing of the slow dense flow disappears and
it transforms to the rapid phase.
Gravity plays a role in remodeling a system. Remodeling
is based on condensing the granular system and configuring
gravitational bonds. While in a microgravity environment,
the absence of gravity eliminates the possibility that rapid
flow could convert to dense flow by long contact and the
formation of gravitational bonds. Also the absence of grav-
itational potential energy increases the likelihood of any
particle moving over to its neighbors.
Free planar flow was also found in a similar situation,
inclined plate flow (Huang et al. 2013b). The great change
of rheological behavior under microgravity was found to be
that sand flow velocity decreased much more slowly and the
flow duration lengthened; however, some of the particles in
the later part of the flow showed rapid flow behavior. As a
result of decreasing gravity in avalanches of small spheri-
cal grains, particles were shown to be more likely to move
far away or even to fly away (Hofmeister et al. 2009; Blum
2010). Thus when gravity is absent, dense flows also tend to
experience the same external forces and move freely; some
of them evolve into rapid flows and preserve their force
bonds without adopting the characteristics of a solid.
Microstructure
In granular flow experiments under microgravity some
micro-structures (e.g., particle rings, radial convection, and
shear zones) are found. In the rheological experiments of
Bossis et al. (2004), particles with intermediate solid frac-
tions form regular rings spaced along the height of the cell.
The shear stress and shear strain rate curves are also found
to be consistent and coincide with the kinetic theory of
gases; a quadratic relationship is clearly observed that is
also consistent with Bagnold’s classic experimental results
(Bagnold 1954).
Bossis et al. (2004) hypothesized that the microstructures
formed as shear movement increased because of the sliding
of the rotating column. As the volume fraction increased,
more particles were generated in the ring. The rings of
particles together with the roughness of the inner rotating
boundary will increase the sliding effect. Then less energy
would be transmitted among particles, thereby reducing the
shear stress.
Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2014) 26:131–138
Similarly, variation in the convective flow area is notable.
Under Earth’s gravity in a Taylor-Couette shearing box, par-
ticles start to rotate after a period of time. The flow in the
rotational direction is referred to as the primary flow, and
the flow velocity decreases as the distance to the internal
drum increases. After the formation of the primary flow, a
convective-like flow running parallel to the drum develops
and is referred to as the secondary flow (Fig. 1). The sec-
ondary flow (Murdoch et al. 2013b) is largely influenced
by gravity. As gravity increases, the scale of the secondary
flow also increases; it disappears under microgravity. Con-
versely, though, the primary flow field is not influenced by
gravity, even though the absence of gravity may change the
frictional particle-particle and particle-wall interactions.
Changes in Convection and Separation Mechanisms
The Rayleigh number, because of the great decrease in natu-
ral convection under microgravity, indicates that the natural
convection of particles was greatly weakened. The new con-
vection mechanism will dominate. Radial convection during
ring-like shear movement is greatly weakened. Louge et al.
(2000) investigated the separation of granular flow under
microgravity by putting two different kinds of spherical par-
ticles in a track-like shear box to experience shearing. A
gradient of fluctuation energy is found between the inner
and outer boundaries of the shear box.
From the perspective of fluid mechanics, the new micro-
gravity convection mechanism is based on convection
caused by heat and surface tension. Because of the prop-
erties of a granular solid, only vibration convection rather
than natural convection takes place, and even radial convec-
tion associated with ring-like shear movement disappears.
Fig. 1 Graphical illustration of primary and secondary flow fields
(based on (Murdoch et al. 2013b))
135
Only vibrational convection and the first flow law work
under microgravity. In contrast, the effect of buoyant force
is cancelled in reduced gravity and therefore the segrega-
tion of grains by size or mass is driven by spatial gradients
in the fluctuating energy of the grains which balanced the
momentum transferred among particles.
Theoretical Analysis and Numerical Simulation
of Granular Flow Under Microgravity
A granular system suffering external loads, and exhibiting a
nature similar to a fluid, is known as a granular flow. A basic
mathematical and physical model for granular flow can be
constructed based on the contact model between particles;
whereas a fine numerical simulation relies on a mathemati-
cal contact model. Since Hertz (1881) proposed his contact
theory, various other contact theories for spherical particles
have been proposed. For different regimes, different numer-
ical schemes have been proposed to analyze the rheological
behavior of granular flow.
In rapid flow, the collisions between particles in exper-
iment are similar to molecular collision; the difference is
that the energy dissipates when the solid particles collide.
Therefore the kinetic theory of gases is widely used in the
analysis and numerical simulation of rapid flow. Beyond
that, the hard-sphere model (Roth et al. 2002), the direct
Monte-Carlo method (Myo et al. 2011) and the molecu-
lar dynamics model (Hrenya 2010) are also classic rapid
flow models, which have obtained some credible results in
previous works.
The quasi-static flow has a high solid fraction and low
shear deformation, its behavior is more similar to the solid,
therefore many scholars have proposed a series of fric-
tion plastic model based on Mohr-Coulomb friction criteria,
such as the double shear model (Alexandrov 2005) and the
plastic potential model (Harris 1995).
Dense flow is more complicated because it is different
from the above two extreme states. It flows like fluid, while
particles maintain enduring contacts. The contact mechan-
ics system theoretically can solve any complex granular
flow, but it is still difficult in realizing by the computer.
Theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of granular
flow based on different sorts of methods such as the DEM
method, the linear stability theory and bifurcation analysis
methods (Alam et al. 2005), the non-smooth contact dynam-
ics (NSCD) (Jean 1999) and the non-smooth DEM (Sanni
et al. 2010) are developed to model dense flow.
Sun et al. (2009) suggest that Hertz theory and MD
theory are used to describe the normal stress and tangen-
tial stress respectively when the contacts are viewed as
smooth; while the JKR theory and Thornton theory are
adopted when the contacts are adhesive. Constraining the
136
parameters achieved by ground tests in microgravitational
environments is a topic worth exploring. Nakashima (2007)
conducted a test with the Toyora sand under micrograv-
ity outflow from a hopper to a plate, and the impact of
gravity for the angle of repose is assessed. They used two
kinds of hoppers with different hopper angles. The exper-
iment was conducted by a parabolic flight of airplane. In
the test, the Toyora sand flows out of the hopper and heaps
up on a circular plate. The sand flow was recorded by a
digital video camera and the angle of response was mea-
sured. The hopper experiment confirmed that the response
angle is less affected by gravity condition. Subsequently, the
DEM method was used to simulate the hopper experiments.
The simulation results were consistent with the experi-
mental results when using a spring constant obtained from
ground testing in different gravitational environments. This
suggests that the DEM parameters are independent of grav-
ity; i.e., the DEM parameters obtained from ground testing
can also be used in a microgravity setting. This shows the
superiority of DEM analysis for granular flow.
Linear stability theory and bifurcation analysis methods
have also been used in the study of granular flow under
microgravity. Alam et al. (2005) established a kinetic-theory
rheological model to analyze granular Couette flow. They
found that at low shear rates, particles are densely packed
near the bottom wall and the shear rate is close to 0; above
this base is a sheared dilute region. Through this process,
gravity adds imperfection to the system by destroying the
perfect bifurcation structure of uniform shear.
The non-smooth contact dynamics method (NSCD) pro-
posed by Jean (1999) provide a new view for the simulation
of dense flow. The contacts between particles are described
by Coulomb’s unilateral contact law with dry friction; there-
fore the simulation of multi-body contacts and collisions
among particles can be realized. The non-associativity of
the constitutive law faces numerical challenges. By adopt-
ing the bi-potential concept in the framework of the NSCD
DEM with a faster and more robust time stepping algo-
rithm is put forward. Fortin et al. (2005) use the dual
potential method solved this non-binding problem. The
bi-potential method leads to a fast and easy implement
predictor-corrector scheme and allows using a convergence
criteria based on an error estimator in constitutive equation
The NSCD DEM model has been executed in the software
MULTICOR. The superiority of this algorithm on dense
flow has been proven. The method has been used success-
fully to solve various three-dimensional problems (Sanni
et al. 2010; Nguyen et al. 2009).
Force chain has been proved by experiments and numer-
ical simulation in dense flow. The complicated characteris-
tics of dense flow are derived from the complex evaluation
of force chain. Therefore the research based on force chain
is necessary approach to make out the rheological behavior
Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2014) 26:131–138
of dense flow. Recently, new constitutive models and a
theoretical model that considers force chain deformation
have been proposed to support a phenomenological consti-
tutive model (Forterre et al. 2008). This model successfully
reproduces the complex flow of particles under different
boundary conditions in dense flow (GDR MiDi 2004). More
attention should be paid on the establishing dynamic numer-
ical model for dense flow. Considering the rheological
behavior under microgravity, the smoothed particle hydro-
dynamics (SPH), which has been adopted to analyze the
large deformation of geo-materials under normal gravity
(Huang et al. 2011, 2012, 2013a), can be introduced to sim-
ulate the dense flow by appropriate constitutive model based
on force chain.
Conclusions
We have presented an analysis of granular flow test plat-
forms and devices operating in microgravity environment,
experimental studies of granular flow under microgravity,
and the numerical simulation of granular flow under micro-
gravity. These three types of studies presented in a logical
sequence have led to the following conclusions.
1. The current development and construction of the Inter-
national Space Station (ISS) makes it one of the
most ideal microgravity platforms. However, because
of economic constraints, most granular flow tests under
microgravity are conducted during parabolic flights or
from a drop tower. To undertake granular flow experi-
ments under microgravity, traditional experimental
devices need to be modified to deal with gravitational
fluctuations and vibrations. Dampening devices and
seismic isolation devices, as well as vacuum and cool-
ing devices, and techniques for containing the experi-
ments within the devices, should be taken into account.
2. Several new rheological behaviors of granular flow
under microgravity have been identified in recent stud-
ies. These include phase transformations, the occur-
rence of microstructures, and change in the mechanisms
of convection and separation. These new findings show
unique contributions of gravity that cannot be observed
in normal Earth gravity. We suggest that the study of
granular flow in the future should focus on quanti-
fying these three behaviors, including how to define
precisely the transition from slow flow to dense flow
and dense flow to rapid flow. Future research should
also address theoretical models of convection and sep-
aration under microgravity and the size or significance
of microstructure.
3. The development of numerical simulation for analy-
sis of rheological behaviors of granular flow under
Microgravity Sci. Technol. (2014) 26:131–138
microgravity is reviewed. For rapid flow, numerical
method based on the kinetic theory is widely suitable.
Friction plastic model based on Mohr-Coulomb friction
criteria is proposed for the simulation of quasi-static
flow. However, there is no a sophisticated model for the
numerical analysis of dense flow. Therefore, we suggest
that more attention should be paid to propose a suitable
numerical scheme based on the force chain to capture
the rheological behavior of dense flow.
Acknowledgments This work was supported by the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41372355 and 41072202),
the Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant
No. NCET-11-0382) and the Key Laboratory of Microgravity, Institute
of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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