FLUID CEP

Problem statement
CEP: Investigate the contact angle of fluid with paper
Investigate the contact angle of water using the Lucas-Washburn equation for a
straight 1-dimensional paper channel. You can cut this channel with the help of
scissors or blade. Perform as many experiments as possible for accurately
determining all variables involved. If it’s not possible, use values from previous
literature.

Abstract:
Surface tension the tension of the surface film of a liquid caused by the attraction
of the particles in the surface layer by the bulk of the liquid, which tends to
minimize surface area. Surface tension has a vital role in product development.
This aspect is being researched and developed by different fields to improve the
quality of products and to correct flaws in production. Scientist Lucas and
Washburn experimented on this phenomenon. Their experiment gave the Lucas-
Washburn equation.
 The classical Lucas-Washburn (LW) equation and its modified forms were
developed and have been applied extensively to elucidate the fundamental
mechanisms underlying the basic statics and dynamics of the capillary-driven flow
in porous systems.
In this report we have used to forms of the LW equations to experimentally
determine the surface tension of water The first equation was the basic Lucas
Washburn equation, and the second one involved calculation of surface tension
using a relationship of the paper’s porosity and permeability. The sources that give
rise to this error are also discussed in this report.

Introduction:
A porous material is which contains pores and voids in it. the fluid mechanics
deals with flow of fluid through pores medium can be better understood by using
analogies of fluid flow in sponge or wood, or when filtering of water plus sand via
filter paper. This phenomena can be further explained and differentiated from
each other by studying the liquid rise through its voids/pores. For simplification
purpose, we consider a porous material to be a vertical capillary.
Many types of surface phenomena including insects “walking” on water, floating
needle, spheres of mercury formed on smooth surfaces, why bubbles are round
etc. are due to unbalanced cohesive forces acting on the liquid molecules at the
surface of the fluid. These type of surface phenomena can easily be explained by
surface tension. Surface tension is the property of the liquid to resist the external
forces which are mainly because of the cohesive nature of its molecules. This
phenomena helps the fluid to raise through the pores material.
Contact angle which is also known as the wetting angle is the angle between a
contacting liquid and solid. It is described as the angle between edge of a liquid
and the solid contacting surface. This angle represents the relative strength of
liquid, solid and vapor interaction. Contact angle also represents the surface
energy and interfacial tension between solid and liquid.
Another parameter is the Lucas-Washburn equation is the contact angle. Contact
angle is the angle between the liquid-vapor interface and the solid surface,
typically measured through liquid surface. It aids in explaining the wettability of
the solid surface by a liquid.
Washburn’s equation explains the phenomenon of capillary flow of liquids in a
stack of tubes aligned together or absorption of liquid or liquid mixture into
porous media. [1] It is used to determine the contact angle and surface energy of
the porous media such as bulk powder or pigments, and permeable materials like
paper or any kind of fabric. It can also be used contrariwise to find surface tension
of given liquid provided contact angle must be known.
A tissue paper with a pore radius of 0.006 cm. A simple visualization technique
was utilized to accurately measure the contact angle.

Literature review:
Our primary goal is to observe the flow of water in a paper channel by performing
simple experiments and measuring the length in a given time. Surface tension is a
very important parameter when determining the characteristics of any liquid. It is
responsible to provide the shape of liquid droplets. Although they are not of much
strength and can easily be deformed, like for instance water droplets can be easily
pulled into spherical shapes by the cohesive forces of the surface layer.
The research paper [2] (Kiesvaara & Yliruusi, 1993) that we conferred used the
Washburn equation to determine the contact angle of lactose powder in which
different liquids were used including water, methanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol, 1-
octanol, and n-hexane. Saturated solutions were used to determine the impinging
properties of the liquids. Constant liquid flow with negligible hydrodynamics
pressure helped in controlled liquid flow through powder columns. Washburn
equipment was used because the apparatus is least expensive and easy to handle.
For our research we conferred a video [3] (USA KINO Industry, 2020) in which
contact angle for tissue paper was measured with fast absorption of water using
Static Interfacial Tensiometer and Contact Angle Meter Model SL200KS. In this
video, they held the tissue paper using a sample holder and levelled the surface of
tissue paper. Instead of using a simple drop of water, a needle with outer diameter
0.2 mm was used to put a drop of water on tissue paper after moving needle near
the surface. Then by using the function of report management of the software
SM01, they came up with the contact angle of 84˚.

Research objective:
 To find the Contact angle using Lucas-Washburn equation
 To find the deviation between theoretical and experimental values.
 To compare experimental and theoretical values for contact angle.

Research methodology:
The experiment was conducted to find the contact angle because it is important
to know wherever the intensity of the phase contact between solid and liquid
substance needs to be checked i.e. coating, cleaning, hydrophilic or hydrophobic
coating, printing, bonding and dispersing etc. the analysis of the experiment was
carried carefully conducted by considering the factor affecting the result. In this
experiment the calibrated tissue paper was hanged vertically into the water bath
contained in tube. A plastic ruler aligned with tissue paper tip is placed at the
surface of the water in order to measure the water displacement travelled on the
surface of tissue paper. The tissue and the plastic ruler were placed in water to
avoid any experimental error. The fluid flow is tracked by the motion camera (i.e.
mobile camera and also to capture the contraction of tissue paper. The results
captured tracked by the video recording were processed carefully by image
processing software, to measure distance travelled per second the analysis of the
experimental data. The procedure was repeated many times for the precise and
accurate results and the average data was plotted on excel to obtain the reliable
relation between distance and time.

Limitations:
However, many porous media have large pore size and porous media is not fully
saturated which leads to error between the predicted absorbed volume and
measured absorbed volume. It also neglects the surface roughness effects as long
as roughness has no effect on contact angle. It works in a diffusion-controlled
mechanism and if the system does not follow that then Washburn equation is not
valid. This equation does not take into account relative humidity changes.

Procedure:
The materials required for our experiment were as shown below.
 Glass beaker
 Hygiene paper
 1 rulers
 Transparent tape(squash tape)
 Pen
 Water supply
 Scissors
 For our experiment we first took multiple straight strips of tissue paper and taped
them on a ruler. We scaled the tissue paper for accurate results. The markings went
from 0 to 7.0 cm. Then we filled a beaker with some water and lowered our tissue
paper just so it could touch the tip of the water. We had set up a camera to record
the flow of the water up the tissue strip. For calibration and to reduce the risk of
error we set an initial delay of 0 to 1cm. this delay was given intentionally for the
 readings to become more stable and accurate.

The experiment was recorded with video camera and later reading was noted down
on the Microsoft Excel by referring the experimental video. The procedure was
repeated 3 and the average readings were used in the manual calculation

REFERENCES:

1. Washburn, E.W., The Dynamics of Capillary Flow. 1921.