Capillary rise between flexible walls

We report experimental work on capillary rise of a liquid in a cell formed by parallel plates, one of which is flexible. We show that above a critical width, the cell collapses under the negative capillary pressure in the liquid. This collapse allows the liquid to rise virtually without limit between the plates. The height of the rising front is found to increase with time as t(1/3), a characteristic of capillary imbibition in a wedge. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2011