Title: Capillary effect

Objective:
 To study capillary action on different fluids when subjected to same conditions.
 To understand how capillary action is affected by properties of liquid such as surface
tension, and viscosity.
 To examine the role of adhesive and cohesive forces in capillary effect for different
fluids.
 To explore potential application in various fields such as medicine, engineering, or
environmental science.

Introduction:
Definition:
Tubes having very small diameter are called capillary tubes. If these narrow tubes are dipped
in a liquid, it is observed that the liquid in the tube either rises or falls to the surrounding
liquid level. This phenomenon is called capillary action. The rise of liquid surface is known
as capillary rise while the fall of the liquid surface is known as capillary depression. It is
expressed in terms of cm or mm of liquid. Its value depends upon the specific weight of the
liquid, diameter of the tube and surface tension of the liquid.

Figure 1. Shows capillary rise for fluid.

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Mathematical expression:

Figure 2. Capillary rise in a fluid.

Let us consider fluid in which a capillary tube is dipped. The level of fluid in the tube is
greater than level of fluid outside as shown in the figure. Let h = Height of depression in tube.
Then in equilibrium, two forces are acting on the fluid inside the tube. First one is due to
surface tension acting in the downward direction and is equal to 𝜎 × 𝜋𝑑 × cos θ. Second force

is due to hydrostatic force acting upward and is equal to intensity of pressure × Area. F=P⋅
(π /4*d2). Equating both equations,

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This is the expression is for capillary action.

History:
The first recorded observation of capillary action was by Leonardo da Vinci. A former student
of Galileo, Niccolò Anguini, was said to have investigated capillary action. In 1660, capillary
action was still a novelty to the Irish chemist Robert Boyle, when he reported that "some
inquisitive French Men" had observed that when a capillary tube was dipped into water, the
water would ascend to "some height in the Pipe". Boyle then reported an experiment in which
he dipped a capillary tube into red wine and then subjected the tube to a partial vacuum. He
found that the vacuum had no observable influence on the height of the liquid in the capillary,
so the behavior of liquids in capillary tubes was due to some phenomenon different from that
which governed mercury barometers.

Others soon followed Boyle's lead. Some (e.g., Honoré Fabri, Jacob Bernoulli) thought that
liquids rose in capillaries because air could not enter capillaries as easily as liquids, so the air
pressure was lower inside capillaries. Others (e.g., Isaac Vossius, Giovanni Alfonso
Borelli,Louis Carré,Francis Hauksbee, Josia Weibrecht) thought that the particles of liquid
were attracted to each other and to the walls of the capillary.

Although experimental studies continued during the 18th century,a successful quantitative
treatment of capillary action was not attained until 1805 by two investigators: Thomas Young
of the United Kingdom and Pierre-Simon Laplace of France. They derived the Young–
Laplace equation of capillary action. By 1830, the German mathematician Carl Friedrich
Gauss had determined the boundary conditions governing capillary action (i.e., the conditions
at the liquid-solid interface). In 1871, the British physicist Sir William Thomson (later Lord
Kelvin) determined the effect of the meniscus on a liquid's vapor pressure—a relation known
as the Kelvin equation.[18] German physicist Franz Ernst Neumann (1798–1895)

Figure 4. Da Vinci was first person to

observe capillary action.
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subsequently determined the interaction between two immiscible liquids. Albert Einstein's
first paper, which was submitted to Annalen der Physik in 1900, was on capillarity.

Wetting and non-wetting of fluids:

It is commonly observed that water in a glass container curves up slightly at the edges where
it touches the glass surface; but the opposite occurs for mercury i.e., it curves down at the
edges. The phenomenon of capillary effect can be explained microscopically by considering
cohesive forces (the forces between like molecules, such as water and water) and adhesive
forces (the forces between unlike molecules, such as water and glass). The liquid molecules
at the solid–liquid interface is subjected to both cohesive forces by other liquid molecules and
adhesive forces by the molecules of the solid. The relative magnitudes of these forces
determine whether a liquid wet a solid surface or not. Obviously, the water molecules are
more strongly attracted to the glass molecules than they are to other water molecules, and

Figure 5. Capillary effect in water and mercury.

thus water tends to rise along the glass surface. The opposite occurs for mercury, which
causes the liquid surface near the glass wall to be suppressed.

Applications:
 The oil in the wick of lamp rises due to capillary action in the wick.
 The root hair of plants draw water from soil due to capillary action.
 The action of soaking up moisture from the body is due to the capillary action of
cotton in the towel.
 Water is retained in sponge due to capillary effect.

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  It allows blood circulation in tiny blood vessels against the gravity.

Figure 6. Capillary action in plants.

Forces in Capillary action:

Three main variables that determine whether a liquid possesses capillary action are:

 Cohesive force: It is the intermolecular bonding of a substance where its mutual

attractiveness forces them to maintain a certain shape of the liquid.
 Surface tension: This occurs as a result of like molecules, cohesive forces, banding
together to form a somewhat impenetrable surface on the body of water. The surface
tension is measured in Newton/meter.

Figure 7. Cohesive fluid and adhesive

forces in fluids.

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 Adhesive force: When forces of attraction between unlike molecules occur, it is
called adhesive forces.