Dynamic Effects during the Capillary Rise of Fluids in Cylindrical Tubes

The mathematical models for the capillary-driven flow of fluids in tubes typically assume a static contact angle at the fluid-air contact line on the tube walls. However, the dynamic evolution of the fluid-air interface is an important feature during capillary rise. Furthermore, inertial effects are relevant at early times and may lead to oscillations. To incorporate and quantify the different effects, a fundamental description of the physical processes within the tube is used to derive an upscaled model of capillary-driven flow in circular cylindrical tubes. The upscaled model extends the classical Lucas-Washburn model by incorporating a dynamic contact angle and slip. It is then further extended to account for inertial effects. Finally, the solutions of the different models are compared to experimental data. In contrast to the Lucas-Washburn model, the models with dynamic contact angle match well the experimental data, both the rise height and the contact angle, even at early times. The models have a free parameter through the dynamic contact angle description, which is fitted using the experimental data. The findings here suggest that this parameter depends only on the properties of the fluid but is independent of geometrical features, such as the tube radius. Therefore, the presented models can predict the capillary-driven flow in tubular systems upon knowledge of the underlying dynamic contact-angle relation.

Automated summary

This study investigated the mathematical models for capillary-driven flow of fluids in tubes and found that the dynamic contact angle and inertial effects have significant impacts on the model predictions. The newly developed models can accurately match experimental data and are sensitive to the properties of the fluid rather than the geometrical features.