Investigation of the Effect of Contact Angle And

Diameter on Capillary Rise (or fall) for a Vertical Glass

Fluid Mechanics-I
Submitted by:
Muhammad Huzaifa Aftab (23-ME-74)

Ayesha Zaman (23-ME-10)

Dur-E-Sameen Malik (23-ME-206)

Ahsan Bashir (23-ME-202)

Huzaifa Riasat (23-ME-158)

Submitted to:
Engr. Muhammad Sumair

Department of Mechanical Engineering

 To explore the impact of contact angle variations on capillary rise or fall in a vertical
glass tube containing water.
 To investigate the relationship between the wetting properties of the tube surface (contact
angle) and the resulting capillary action.
 To analyze how changes in the diameter of the glass tube affect the capillary rise or fall
phenomenon.
 To quantify the role of cohesive and adhesive forces in determining the height to which
water ascends or descends within the glass tube.

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Introduction
The capillary effect is the phenomenon of liquid rising or falling in a narrow tube or pore due to
the interplay of surface tension and gravity. Capillary comes from the Latin word capillaris,
meaning "of or resembling hair." The meaning stems from the tiny, hair like diameter of a
capillary. It occurs because of intermolecular forces between the liquid and the surrounding
solid surfaces. Capillarity is important for various engineering applications, such as irrigation,
paint technology, petroleum recovery, biomedical devices, and microfluidics. To understand
capillarity, we need to consider two types of forces that act on the liquid molecules: cohesion and
adhesion. Cohesion is the attraction between molecules of the same substance, while adhesion is
the attraction between molecules of different substances. When a liquid comes in contact with a
solid surface, the balance between these forces determines the shape of the liquid interface.

Fig. 1: Capillary Effect – Liquid ascent or descent in a narrow tube

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If the adhesion is stronger than the cohesion, the liquid will spread out and wet the surface. If the
cohesion is stronger than the adhesion, the liquid will form a droplet and resist wetting the
surface. The angle between the liquid interface and the solid surface is called the contact angle. It
is a measure of how well the liquid wets the surface. A small contact angle means a high degree
of wetting, while a large contact angle means a low degree of wetting. In a capillary tube, the
liquid interface can be either concave or convex, depending on the contact angle. A concave
interface means that the liquid wets the tube wall, while a convex interface means that the liquid
does not wet the tube wall. The difference in pressure across the interface causes the liquid to rise
or fall in the tube. This effect can be seen in the drawing up of liquids between the hairs of a
paint-brush, in a thin tube such as a straw, in porous materials such as paper and plaster, in some
non-porous materials such as sand and liquefied carbon fiber, or in a biological cell.
It occurs because of intermolecular forces between the liquid and surrounding solid surfaces. If
the diameter of the tube is sufficiently small, then the combination of surface tension (which is
caused by cohesion within the liquid) and adhesive forces between the liquid and container wall
act to propel the liquid.The surface tension of the liquid acts as a force that tries to minimize the
surface area of the interface, while the gravity acts as a force that tries to pull the liquid down.
The shape of interface is determined by the equilibrium of these two forces, which depends on
the radius of the tube or pore, the density and viscosity of the liquid, and the contact angle
between the liquid and the solid wall.
The first recorded observation of capillary action was by Leonardo da Vinci. A former student of
Galileo, Niccolo Aggiunti, 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.

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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. German physicist Franz Ernst Neumann (1798–1895) 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.
In the built environment, evaporation limited capillary penetration is responsible for the
phenomenon of rising damp in concrete and masonry, while in industry and diagnostic medicine
this phenomenon is increasingly being harnessed in the field of paper-based microfluidics.In
physiology, capillary action is essential for the drainage of continuously produced tear fluid from
the eye. Two canaliculi of tiny diameter are present in the inner corner of the eyelid, also called
the lacrimal ducts; their openings can be seen with the naked eye within the lacrymal sacs when
the eyelids are everted. Wicking is the absorption of a liquid by a material in the manner of a
candle wick. Paper towels absorb liquid through capillary action, allowing a fluid to be
transferred from a surface to the towel. The small pores of a sponge act as small capillaries,
causing it to absorb a large amount of fluid.

Some textile fabrics are said to use capillary action to "wick" sweat away from the skin. These
are often referred to as wicking fabrics, after the capillary properties of candle and lamp
wicks.Capillary action is observed in thin layer chromatography, in which a solvent moves
vertically up a plate via capillary action. In this case the pores are gaps between very small
particles.Capillary action draws ink to the tips of fountain pen nibs from a reservoir or cartridge
inside the pen.With some pairs of materials, such as mercury and glass, the intermolecular forces
within the liquid exceed those between the solid and the liquid, so a convex meniscus forms and
capillary action works in reverse.In hydrology, capillary action describes the attraction of water
molecules to soil particles. Capillary action is responsible for moving groundwater from wet
areas of the soil to dry areas. Differences in soil potential drive capillary action in soil.

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A practical application of capillary action is the capillary action siphon. Instead of utilizing a
hollow tube (as in most siphons), this device consists of a length of cord made of a fibrous
material (cotton cord or string works well). After saturating the cord with water, one (weighted)
end is placed in a reservoir full of water, and the other end placed in a receiving vessel. The
reservoir must be higher than the receiving vessel.[citation needed] A related but simplified
capillary siphon only consists of two hook-shaped stainless-steel rods, whose surface is
hydrophilic, allowing water to wet the narrow grooves between them. Due to capillary action and
gravity, water will slowly transfer from the reservoir to the receiving vessel. This simple device
can be used to water houseplants when nobody is home. This property is also made use of in the
lubrication of steam locomotives: wicks of worsted wool are used to draw oil from reservoirs
into delivery pipes leading to the bearings.

Capillary action is seen in many plants, and plays a part in transpiration. Water is brought high up
in trees by branching; evaporation at the leaves creating depressurization; probably by osmotic
pressure added at the roots; and possibly at other locations inside the plant, especially when
gathering humidity with air roots.Capillary action for uptake of water has been described in some
small animals, such as Ligia exotica and Moloch horridus.