A two-dimensional asymptotic model for capillary collapse

The collapse under surface tension of a long axisymmetric capillary, held at both ends and softened by a travelling heater, is used to determine the viscosity or surface tension of silica glasses. Capillary collapse is also used in the manufacture of some optical fibre preforms. Typically, a one-dimensional (1-D) model of the closure of a concentric fluid annulus is used to relate a measure of the change in the cross-sectional geometry, for example the external radius, to the desired information. We here show that a two-dimensional (2-D) asymptotic model developed for drawing of optical fibres, but with a unit draw ratio, may be used and yields analytic formulae involving a single dimensionless parameter, the scaled heater speed , equivalently a capillary number. For a capillary fixed at both ends, this 2-D model agrees with the 1-D model and offers the significant benefit that it enables determination of both the surface tension and viscosity from a single capillary-collapse experiment, provided the pulling tension in the capillary during collapse is measured. The 2-D model also enables our investigation of the situation where both ends of the capillary are not fixed, so that the capillary cannot sustain a pulling tension. Then the collapse of the capillary is markedly different from that predicted by the 1-D model and the ability to determine both surface tension and viscosity is lost.

Automated summary

Capillary collapse experiment can be used to determine the viscosity or surface tension of silica glasses, with practical significance. The study finds that a 2-D model can determine both the surface tension and viscosity from a single experiment, offering significant advantages.