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Related Concept Videos

Surface Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity02:57

Surface Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity

Surface Tension
The various IMFs between identical molecules of a substance are examples of cohesive forces. The molecules within a liquid are surrounded by other molecules and are attracted equally in all directions by the cohesive forces within the liquid. However, the molecules on the surface of a liquid are attracted only by about one-half as many molecules. Because of the unbalanced molecular attractions on the surface molecules, liquids contract to form a shape that minimizes the number...
Surface Tension of Fluid01:22

Surface Tension of Fluid

Surface tension is a fundamental property of fluids, occurring at the boundary between a liquid and a gas or between two immiscible liquids. This phenomenon arises from the cohesive forces between molecules at the fluid's surface, creating an effect similar to a stretched elastic membrane. Inside each fluid, molecules are equally attracted in all directions by neighboring molecules, but surface molecules experience a net inward force, resulting in surface tension.
Surface tension varies with...
Surface Tension01:24

Surface Tension

Surface tension is defined as the force per unit length (γ) acting along the surface of a liquid. It arises due to strong intermolecular forces of attraction. A molecule located inside the bulk of the liquid is surrounded by other molecules and experiences equal forces in all directions. However, a molecule at the surface experiences unbalanced forces because there are more neighboring molecules below than above. This creates a net inward force that pulls surface molecules toward the interior,...
Surface Tension and Surface Energy01:16

Surface Tension and Surface Energy

When a paint brush is immersed in water, the bristles wave freely inside the water. When it is taken out, the bristles stick together. The reason behind this effect is surface tension.
Consider a beaker filled with liquid. The bulk molecules in the liquid experience equal attractive forces on all sides with the surrounding molecules. However, the surface molecules experience a net attractive force downward due to the bulk molecules. The surface of the liquid behaves like a stretched membrane,...
Oriented Surfaces01:30

Oriented Surfaces

A surface is called orientable if a consistent choice of unit normal vector can be made at every point on the surface. A thin soap film stretched across a wire loop provides a familiar example. The film separates the air on one side from the air on the other, so one side can be selected as positive and the opposite side as negative. Once this choice is made, a unit normal vector can be assigned smoothly across the entire surface.At each point on the soap film, a unit normal vector points...
Capillarity in Fluid01:19

Capillarity in Fluid

Capillarity describes the movement of liquid in small spaces without external forces acting on it. The capillarity is driven by surface tension and adhesive interactions between the liquid and surrounding solid surfaces. This effect is often seen in narrow tubes, porous materials, and fine particles.
Surface tension is crucial to capillarity. It results from cohesive forces between liquid molecules at the liquid-air boundary, forming a skin that resists external forces. When the capillary tube...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Rendering SiO2/Si Surfaces Omniphobic by Carving Gas-Entrapping Microtextures Comprising Reentrant and Doubly Reentrant Cavities or Pillars
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Rendering SiO2/Si Surfaces Omniphobic by Carving Gas-Entrapping Microtextures Comprising Reentrant and Doubly Reentrant Cavities or Pillars

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Wetting and minimal surfaces.

Constantin Bachas1, Pierre Le Doussal, Kay Jörg Wiese

  • 1and Institut für Theoretische Physik, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|May 16, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Researchers developed a method to calculate nonlinear corrections to fluid surface energy in wetting phenomena. This approach simplifies minimal surface computations and reveals insights into contact line behavior.

Area of Science:

  • Physics
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Materials Science

Background:

  • Minimal surfaces are crucial in understanding wetting and capillarity.
  • Existing models may not fully capture nonlinear effects at the contact line.
  • The Joanny-de Gennes energy provides a framework for fluid-surface interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To develop a simplified method for calculating nonlinear corrections to the Joanny-de Gennes energy.
  • To analyze the behavior of contact lines in wetting phenomena.
  • To provide an algorithm for computing minimal surfaces and their energies.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing conformal coordinates to simplify the problem.
  • Reducing the analysis to coupled boundary equations for the fluid contact line.

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  • Deriving diagrammatic rules for calculating nonlinear corrections.
  • Applying perturbation theory and analyzing its quasilocal nature.

    • Main Results:

    • Demonstrated that perturbation theory is quasilocal, decoupling container geometry from contact line deformations.
    • Calculated the linearized interaction between contact lines on parallel walls.
    • Presented a straightforward algorithm for minimal surface and energy computation.
    • Identified singularities in the Legendre transformation between Dirichlet and mixed Dirichlet-Neumann problems.

    Conclusions:

    • The developed method offers a simplified approach to studying minimal surfaces in wetting phenomena.
    • The quasilocal nature of perturbation theory simplifies the analysis of contact line deformations.
    • The algorithm provides a practical tool for computing minimal surface energies.
    • Further investigation into the identified singularities could yield new theoretical insights.