Homework #1 MECH 6375

Edgardo Javier Garca Cartagena

September 11, 2016
Question 1-1
In order to enhance boiling heat transfer, what type of surface (superhydrophobic, hydrophilic,
hydrophobic and superhydrophobic) is the best according to your understanding. Why is that? To make
such a surface, what surface modification methods can we use if water is the boiling liquid? List 3~5
different methods. You can use Google.
In order to enhance boiling heat transfer, the best type of surfaces are hydrophilic and super-hydrophilic
surfaces. These type of surfaces are better because of the high surface energy with respect to water, in
other word water will wet the surface, a very low contact angle of water is observed. Ways of enhancing
boiling are increasing the surface roughness and creation of special artificially fabricated cavities to
efficiently trap vapor. More sophisticated methods are combining hydrophobic with hydrophilic surfaces,
which has been verified experimentally. Also boiling heat transfer can be enhanced by suction of the
vapor trough a porous heated wall and vibration of the fluid or the surface.

Question 1-2
(a) Determine the capillary rise height of pure water at 25 oC in a tube with an inside diameter of 0.3
mm. The contact angle is 20o.
! = 998 !
! = 1.20 / !
! = .15
= 20!
= 0.0728 /
2 cos ()
2 0.0728 cos (20)
! =
=
= 0.0934 = 9.34
! ! !
998 1.20 9.8 0.00015
(b) Using equation ! = ! [1 0.411 log 1 +

!!
!.!!"#

] to compute the surface tension for the

mixture, determine how high we would have to rise the mole fraction of 2-propanol in water/2propanol mixture to drop the capillary rise to half that for pure water.
Assuming density of the mixture is equal to the density of water (the mole fraction of 2-propanol
is less than 0.01), the surface tension of the mixture would have to be half the surface tension of
water.
!
! =
2
!
! /2 = ! [1 0.411 log 1 +
]
0.0026
!
1
= 1 0.411 log (1 +
)
2
0.026

1
1
!
2
= log 1 +
.411
0.0026

!
!!!
!!.!""

! =

!
0.0026

=1+
!
!!!
!!.!""

1 0.0026 = 0.0062

Question 1-3
According to the drop weight and drop volume method, derive the interfacial tension between water and
oil. The densities of water and oil are ! and ! . is the mass of the drop; is the volume of the drop;
is the radius of the tip; is the acceleration due to gravity and is the correction factor. Note: in our
lecture the droplet volume method shows water-air interfacial tension.

The surface tension of water

! =

!
2

The surface tension of oil

! =

!
2

Using Fowkes equation

!" = ! + ! 2 ! !

!/!

Substituting equations from drop weight and drop volume method into the previous
!" =

+ ! 2 ! !
2 !

!
!

Question 1-4
(a) Using Youngs equation and a suitable predictive equation for the surface tension (the
equations are in the slides), calculate !" !" for liquid water and water vapor on a gold
surface at 20 oC if the equilibrium contact angle is 20o.
The surface tension of water in contact with its vapor at 20 is !" = 72.8 /
!" !" = !" cos
!" !" = 72.8 cos 20 = 68.40 /

(b) Assuming that !" !" does not change significantly with temperature, use an appropriate
relation for !" to determine and plot the variation of contact angle with temperature from
20 oC to 100 oC. How significantly does this analysis predict that the surface wettability will
change over this temperature range?
Using the relation proposed by Jasper
!" = ! !
with coefficients for water
! = 75.83 /
! = 0.1477 /
!" = 75.83 0.1477
the variation of the contact angle must be proportional to the variation of !" following
Youngs equation.
!" !"
!"
Substituting value from part (a) for !" !" = 68.40 / and Jasper relation we get
cos () =

cos =

68.40
75.83 0.1477

= cos !!

68.40
75.83 0.1477

Using this procedure we are only able to predict a contact angle in the range of [0-20] degrees, which is
already a range characteristic of hydrophilic surfaces with high wettability. As the temperature is
increased a smaller contact angle is predicted with better wettability properties.

Question 1-5
Consider a capillary tube of radius ! containing a liquid slug like that shown in
figure below. Determine a relation for the pressure drop required to initiate
downward motion of the plug in terms of the liquid and vapor densities, the
length of the slug L, and the advancing and receding angles ! and ! ,
respectively. You may assume that the gas-liquid interfaces are both portions of a
spherical surface. The densities of liquid and gas are ! and ! , respectively.
Refer to the right figure. U
Using the Young-Laplace pressure drop equation assuming a sphere surface.
(subscript t is for top and b for bottom)
! ! =

2!
!

! ! =

2!
!

Using Young equation

! =

!" !"
cos !

! =

!" !"
cos !

The hydrostatic variations

! ! = !
! ! = !
To achieve equilibrium the following equations is a necessary condition, with ! = !
2! 2!

= ! !
!
!
To initiate a downward motion the receding angle is smaller than the advancing angle, in such
configuration that surface tension is unable to balance the force of gravity on the volume. The following
expression can explain the motion.
! = ! !
including the surface tension and the body force (gravity)
!" !"

2
2

! + ! = ! !
cos ! ! cos ! !