Effective Fluid Front of the Moving Meniscus in Capillary

C Chen and KJ Lu and L Zhuang and XF Li and JF Dong and JT Lu, LANGMUIR, 29, 3269-3273 (2013).

DOI: 10.1021/la304598h

Traditionally, the meniscus bottom is taken as the fluid front when tracking the fluid motion in capillary, but in simulation studies, the thus-calculated motion curve deviates notably from the modified Lucas- Washburn equation. Here, we report that, by considering a volume equivalent of the meniscus part, the motion of the equivalent front agrees very well with the theoretical prediction; furthermore, such an effective fluid front can be directly represented by a specific position of the meniscus, which is independent of the capillary radius. These findings provide an accurate and practical method for describing the motion of the fluid front in capillary.

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