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Rise of Liquid in a Capillary Tube

Rise of Liquid in a Capillary Tube

When very thin cylindrical tubes, called capillaries, are dipped in a liquid, the liquid rises or falls in the tube compared to the surrounding liquid. This phenomenon is called capillary action. Capillary action occurs due to the combination of two opposing forces: the cohesive forces of the liquid, which cause it to stick to itself and form a rounded shape, and the adhesive forces between the liquid and the walls of the container, which cause the liquid to be attracted to the container walls.

Capillarity in Fluid

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...

Surface Tension of Fluid

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 Tension, Capillary Action, and Viscosity

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

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,...

Contact Angle

Contact Angle

When a solid is dipped inside a liquid, the liquid surface becomes curved near the contact. For some solid–liquid interfaces, the liquid is pulled up along the solid, while for others, the liquid surface is convex or depressed near the solid surface. This phenomenon can be explained using the concept of cohesive and adhesive forces.
The adhesive force is the molecular force between molecules of different materials, that is, between the molecules of the solid and the liquid. The cohesive force...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 28, 2026

Fabrication and Visualization of Capillary Bridges in Slit Pore Geometry

Fabrication and Visualization of Capillary Bridges in Slit Pore Geometry

Published on: January 9, 2014

Capillary rise of liquids over a microstructured solid surface.

Wen Liu¹, Yulong Li, Yuguang Cai

¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506, USA.

Langmuir : the ACS Journal of Surfaces and Colloids

|October 26, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study models capillary rise of organic liquids on rough intermetallic surfaces, finding wicking depends on surface topography and liquid properties. The filling factor remains consistent, enabling accurate predictions.

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Area of Science:

Materials Science
Fluid Dynamics
Surface Science

Background:

Capillary rise in porous media is crucial for various applications.
Understanding liquid wicking on rough surfaces requires detailed analysis of surface topography and liquid properties.

Purpose of the Study:

To develop and validate a theoretical model for capillary rise of organic liquids on rough intermetallic (IMC) substrates.
To investigate the influence of surface topography and liquid properties on wicking kinetics.

Main Methods:

Experimental recording of triple line location over time for organic liquids on a rough Cu(6)Sn(5)/Cu IMC substrate.
Development of a theoretical model treating the rough IMC surface as a 2D porous medium with microtriangular grooves.
Verification of the theoretical model against experimental data.

Main Results:

Wicking kinetics are governed by surface topography (permeability, tortuosity, porosity, microchannel geometry), wicking features (contact angle, filling factor), and liquid properties (surface tension, viscosity).
The theoretical model shows excellent agreement with experimental data for a selected filling factor.
Scaled data reveal that liquid wicking depends on surface tension to viscosity ratios and contact angles, with a consistent filling factor (~0.9-1.0) across tested liquids.

Conclusions:

The established theoretical model accurately predicts capillary rise on rough surfaces.
The filling factor is an invariant parameter for predicting wicking behavior across different organic liquids on this specific rough surface.
The relationship between wicking front distance and the square root of time is consistently observed.