Surface Tension-Driven Flow
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Objective: · To study surface tension and the fluid flows caused by differences in surface tension. Science Standards: |
Unifying concepts and processes Science Process Skills: |
Activity Management MATERIALS AND TOOLS
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A clay maze is constructed on a cafeteria tray. Water is added. A drop of liquid soap disrupts the surface tension of the water and dreates currents that are made visible with food coloring. |
Activity Management:
The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate how surface tension
changes can cause fluids to flow. It requires shallow trays with raised
edges such as cafeteria trays. Large Styrofoam food trays from a supermarket
can also be used, but they should be the kind with a smooth surface and
not a waffle texture. Light-colored trays make a better background for
seeing the surface tension effects. Encourage students to try different
mazes and investigate the effects of wide versus narrow mazes.
If you have ever looked closely at drops of water, you will know that drops try to form spherical shapes. Because of gravity's attraction, drops that cling to an eye dropper, for example, are stretched out. However, when the drops fall they become spherical. The shape of a water drop is a result of surface tension. Water is composed of molecules consisting of two hydrogen atoms and one atom of oxygen. These molecules attract each other. In the middle of a drop of water, molecules attract each other in all directions so no direction is preferred. On the surface, however, molecules are attracted across the surface and inward. This causes the water to try to pull itself into a shape that has the least surface area possible-the sphere. Because of gravity, drops resting on a surface, like water drops on a well-waxed car, flatten out somewhat like the figure above. The molecules on the surface of a liquid behave like an elastic membrane.You can easily see the elastic membrane effect by floating a needle on the surface of a glass of water. Gently lower the needle to the water surface with a pair of tweezers. Examine the water near the needle and you will observe that it is depressed slightly as though it were a thin sheet of rubber. |
The addition of a surfactant, such as liquid soap, to water reduces its surface tension. Water molecules do not bond as strongly with soap molecules as they do with themselves. Therefore, the bonding force that enables the molecules to behave like an elastic membrane is weaker. If you put a drop of liquid soap in the glass with the needle, the surface tension is greatly reduced and the needle quickly sinks. When you added liquid soap to the water in the experiment, the surface tension was weakened in one place. The water on the surface immediately began spreading away from the site of the soap. The clay walls |
Because a microgravity environment greatly reduces buoyancy-driven fluid
flows and sedimentation, surface tension flows become very important.
Microgravity actually makes it easier to study surface tension-driven
flows. On Earth, studying surface tension in the midst of gravity-driven
flows is like trying to listen to a whisper during a rock concert. The
importance of surface tension research in microgravity is that surface
tension-driven flows can interfere with experiments involving fluids.
For example, crystals growing on the International Space Car Surface Air
Molecules inside a water drop are attracted in all directions. Drops on
the surface are attracted to the sides and inward. Station could be affected
by surface tension-driven flows, leading to defects in the crystal structure
produced. Understanding surface tension better could lead to new materials
processing techniques that either reduce surface tension's influence or
take advantage of it. One example of a positive application of surface
tension is the use of sprayers to paint a surface. Surface tension causes
paint to form very small droplets that cover a surface uniformly without
forming drips and runs.