Surface tension of liquids

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capillarity
Of the many hydrostatic phenomena in which the surface tension of liquids plays a role,
the most significant is probably capillarity. Consider what happens when a tube of
narrow bore, often called a capillary tube, is dipped into a liquid. If the liquid “wets” the
tube (with zero contact angle), the liquid surface inside the tube forms a
concave meniscus, which is a virtually spherical surface having the same radius, r, as the
inside of the tube. The tube experiences a downward force of magnitude 2πrdσ, where σ
is the surface tension of the liquid, and the liquid experiences a reaction of equal
magnitude that lifts the meniscus through a height h such that —
i.e., until the upward force for which surface tension is responsible is balanced by the
weight of the column of liquid that has been lifted. If the liquid does not wet the tube,
the meniscus is convex and depressed through the same distance h (see Figure 3). A
simple method for determining surface tension involves the measurement of h in one or
the other of these situations and the use of equation (127) thereafter.

It follows from equations (124) and (127) that the pressure at a point P just below the

meniscus differs from the pressure at Q by an amount it is less than the

pressure at Q in the case to which Figure 3A refers and greater than the pressure at Q in
the other case. Since the pressure at Q is just the atmospheric pressure, it is equal to the
pressure at a point immediately above the meniscus. Hence, in both instances there is a
pressure difference of 2σ/r between the two sides of the curved meniscus, and in both
the higher pressure is on the inner side of the curve. Such a pressure difference is a
requirement of equilibrium wherever a liquid surface is curved. If the surface is curved
but not spherical, the pressure difference is where r1 and r2 are the
two principal radii of curvature. If it is cylindrical, one of these radii is infinite, and, if it
is curved in opposite directions, then for the purposes of (129) they should be treated as
being of opposite sign.

The diagrams in Figure 3 were drawn to represent cross sections through cylindrical
tubes, but they might equally well represent two vertical parallel plates that are partly
submerged in the liquid a small distance apart. Consideration of how the pressure varies
with height shows that over the range of height h the plates experience a greater
pressure on their outer surfaces than on their inner surfaces; this is true whether the
liquid wets both plates or not. It is a matter of observation that small objects floating
near one another on the surface of a liquid tend to move toward one another, and it is
the pressure difference just referred to that makes them behave in this way.

formation of a liquid drop

One other problem having to do with surface tension will be considered here. The
diagrams in Figure 4 show stages in the growth of a liquid drop on the end of a tube
which the liquid is supposed to wet. In passing from stage A to stage B, by which time
the drop is roughly hemispheric in shape, the radius of curvature of the drop
diminishes; and it follows from (128) that, to bring about this growth, one must slowly
increase the pressure of the liquid inside the tube. If the pressure could be held steady at
the value corresponding to B, the drop would then become unstable, because any further
growth (e.g., to the more or less spherical shape indicated in Figure 4C) would involve
an increase in radius of curvature. The applied pressure would then exceed that required
to hold the drop in equilibrium, and the drop would necessarily grow bigger still. In
practice, however, it is easier to control the rate of flow of water through the tube, and
hence the rate of growth of the drop, than it is to control the pressure. If the rate of flow
is very small, drops will form the nonspherical shapes suggested by Figure 4D before
they detach themselves and fall. It is not an easy matter to analyze the shape of a drop
on the point of detachment, and there is no simple formula for the volume of the drop
after it is detached.

Hydrodynamics
Bernoulli’s law
Up to now the focus has been fluids at rest. This section deals with fluids that are
in motion in a steady fashion such that the fluid velocity at each given point in space is
not changing with time. Any flow pattern that is steady in this sense may be seen in
terms of a set of streamlines, the trajectories of imaginary particles suspended in the
fluid and carried along with it. In steady flow, the fluid is in motion but the streamlines
are fixed. Where the streamlines crowd together, the fluid velocity is relatively high;
where they open out, the fluid becomes relatively stagnant.

When Euler and Bernoulli were laying the foundations of hydrodynamics, they treated

the fluid as an idealized inviscid substance in which, as in a fluid at rest in equilibrium,
the shear stresses associated with viscosity are zero and the pressure p is isotropic. They
arrived at a simple law relating the variation of p along a streamline to the variation
of v (the principle is credited to Bernoulli, but Euler seems to have arrived at it first),
which serves to explain many of the phenomena that real fluids in steady motion
display. To the inevitable question of when and why it is justifiable to neglect viscosity,
there is no single answer. Some answers will be provided later in this article, but other
matters will be taken up first.

Consider a small element of fluid of mass m, which—apart from the force on it due to

gravity—is acted on only by a pressure p. The latter is isotropic and does not vary with
time but may vary from point to point in space. It is a well-
known consequence of Newton’s laws of motion that, when a particle of mass m moves
under the influence of its weight mg and an additional force F from a point P where its
speed is vP and its height is zP to a point Q where its speed is vQ and its height is zQ,
the work done by the additional force is equal to the increase in kinetic and potential

energy of the particle—i.e., that

In the case of the fluid element under consideration, F may be related in a simple

fashion to the gradient of the pressure, and one finds

 Britannica Quiz

Physics and Natural Law

If the variations of fluid density along the streamline from P to Q are negligibly small,

the factor ρ−1 may be taken outside the integral on the right-hand side of (131), which
thereupon reduces to ρ−1(pQ - pP). Then (130) and (131) can be combined to obtain

Since this applies for any two points that can be visited by a single element of fluid, one
can immediately deduce Bernoulli’s (or Euler’s) important result that along each

streamline in the steady flow of an inviscid fluid the quantity is

constant.

Under what circumstances are variations in the density negligibly small? When they are
very small compared with the density itself—i.e., when

where the symbol Δ is

used to represent the extent of the change along a streamline of the quantity that follows
it, and where Vs is the speed of sound (see below Compressible flow in gases). This
condition is satisfied for all the flow problems having to do with water that are discussed
below. If the fluid is air, it is adequately satisfied provided that the largest excursion
in z is on the order of metres rather than kilometres and provided that the fluid velocity
is everywhere less than about 100 metres per second.

Bernoulli’s law indicates that, if an inviscid fluid is flowing along a pipe of varying cross
section, then the pressure is relatively low at constrictions where the velocity is high and
relatively high where the pipe opens out and the fluid stagnates. Many people find this
situation paradoxical when they first encounter it. Surely, they say, a constriction should
increase the local pressure rather than diminish it? The paradox evaporates as one
learns to think of the pressure changes along the pipe as cause and the velocity changes
as effect, instead of the other way around; it is only because the pressure falls at a
constriction that the pressure gradient upstream of the constriction has the right sign to
make the fluid accelerate.

Paradoxical or not, predictions based on Bernoulli’s law are well-verified by experiment.

Try holding two sheets of paper so that they hang vertically two centimetres or so apart
and blow downward so that there is a current of air between them. The sheets will be
drawn together by the reduction in pressure associated with this current. Ships are
drawn together for much the same reason if they are moving through the water in the
same direction at the same speed with a small distance between them. In this case, the
current results from the displacement of water by each ship’s bow, which has to flow
backward to fill the space created as the stern moves forward, and the current between
the ships, to which they both contribute, is stronger than the current moving past their
outer sides. As another simple experiment, listen to the hissing sound made by a tap
that is almost, but not quite, turned off. What happens in this case is that the flow is so
constricted and the velocity within the constriction so high that the pressure in the
constriction is actually negative. Assisted by the dissolved gases that are normally
present, the water cavitates as it passes through, and the noise that is heard is the sound
of tiny bubbles collapsing as the water slows down and the pressure rises again on the
other side.

venturi tube and pitot tube

Two practical devices that are used by hydraulic engineers to monitor the flow of liquids
though pipes are based on Bernoulli’s law. One is the venturi tube, a short length with a
constriction in it of standard shape (see Figure 5A), which may be inserted into the pipe
proper. If the velocity at point P, where the tube has a cross-sectional area AP, is vP and
the velocity in the constriction, where the area is AQ, is vQ, the continuity condition—the
condition that the mass flowing through the pipe per unit time has to be the same at all
points along its length—suggests that ρPAPvP = ρQAQvQ, or that APvP = AQvQ if the difference
between ρP and ρQ is negligible. Then Bernoulli’s law indicates

Thus one should be able to find vP, and hence the quantity Q (= APvP) that engineers refer
to as the rate of discharge, by measuring the difference of level h of the fluid in the two
side tubes shown in the diagram. At low velocities the pressure difference (pP - pQ) is
greatly affected by viscosity (see below Viscosity), and equation (135) is unreliable in
consequence. The venturi tube is normally used, however, when the velocity is large
enough for the flow to be turbulent (see below Turbulence). In such a circumstance,
equation (135) predicts values for Q that agree with values measured by more direct
means to within a few parts percent, even though the flow pattern is not really steady at
all.

The other device is the pitot tube, which is illustrated in Figure 5B. The fluid streamlines
divide as they approach the blunt end of this tube, and at the point marked Q in the
diagram there is complete stagnation, since the fluid at this point is moving neither up
nor down nor to the right. It follows immediately from Bernoulli’s law that

As with the venturi tube, one should therefore be able to find vP from the level
difference h.

One other simple result deserves mention here. It concerns a jet of

fluid emerging through a hole in the wall of a vessel filled with liquid under pressure.
Observation of jets shows that after emerging they narrow slightly before settling down
to a more or less uniform cross section known as the vena contracta. They do so because
the streamlines are converging on the hole inside the vessel and are obliged to continue
converging for a short while outside. It was Torricelli who first suggested that, if the
pressure excess inside the vessel is generated by a head of liquid h, then the velocity v at
the vena contracta is the velocity that a free particle would reach on falling through a
height h—i.e., that

This result is an immediate consequence, for an inviscid fluid, of the principle

of energy conservation that Bernoulli’s law enshrines.

In the following section, Bernoulli’s law is used in an indirect way to establish a formula
for the speed at which disturbances travel over the surface of shallow water. The
explanation of several interesting phenomena having to do with water waves is buried in
this formula. Analogous phenomena dealing with sound waves in gases are discussed
below in Compressible flow in gases, where an alternative form of Bernoulli’s law is
introduced. This form of the law is restricted to gases in steady flow but is not restricted
to flow velocities that are much less than the speed of sound. The complication that
viscosity represents is again ignored throughout these two sections.

Waves on shallow water

surface of shallow water

Imagine a layer of water with a flat base that has a small step on its surface, dividing a
region in which the depth of the water is uniformly equal to D from a region in which it
is uniformly equal to D(1 + ε), with ε << 1. Let the water in the shallower region flow
toward the step with some uniform speed V, as Figure 6A suggests, and let this speed be
just sufficient to hold the step in the same position so that the flow pattern is a steady
one. The continuity condition (i.e., the condition that as much water flows out to the left
per unit time as flows in from the right) indicates that in the deeper region the speed of
the water is V(1 + ε)−1. Hence by applying Bernoulli’s law to the points marked P and Q
in the diagram, which lie on the same streamline and at both of which the pressure is

atmospheric, one may deduce that

This result shows that, if the water in the shallower region is in fact stationary
(see Figure 6B), the step advances over it with the speed V that equation (138) describes,
and it reveals incidentally that behind the step the deeper water follows up with
speed V[1 - (1 + ε)−1] ≈ εV. The argument may readily be extended to disturbances of the
surface that are undulatory rather than steplike. Provided that the distance between
successive crests—a distance known as the wavelength and denoted by λ—is much
greater than the depth of the water, D, and provided that its amplitude is very much less
than D, a wave travels over stationary water at a speed given by (138). Because their
speed does not depend on wavelength, the waves are said to be nondispersive.

Evidently waves that are approaching a shelving beach should slow down
as D diminishes. If they are approaching it at an angle, the slowing-down effect bends,
or refracts, the wave crests so that they are nearly parallel to the shore by the time they
ultimately break.

Suppose now that a small step of height εD (ε << 1) is traveling over stationary water of
uniform depth D and that behind it is a second step of much the same height traveling in
the same direction. Because the second step (suggested by a dotted line in Figure 6B) is
traveling on a base that is moving at εSquare root of√(gD) and because the thickness of
that base is (1 + ε)D rather than D, the speed of the second step is approximately (1 +
3ε/2)Square root of√(gD). Since this is greater than Square root of√(gD), the second
step is bound to catch up with the first. Hence, if there are a succession of infinitesimal
steps that raise the depth continuously from D to some value D′, which differs
significantly from D, then the ramp on the surface is bound to become steeper as it
advances. It may be shown that if D′ exceeds about 1.3D, the ramp ultimately becomes a
vertical step of finite height and that the step then “breaks.” A finite step that has broken
dissipates energy as heat in the resultant foaming motion, and Bernoulli’s equation is no
longer applicable to it. A simple argument based on conservation of momentum rather
than energy, however, suffices to show that its velocity of propagation is

Tidal bores, which may be observed on some estuaries, are examples on the large scale
of the sort of phenomena to which (139) applies. Examples on a smaller scale include
the hydraulic jumps that are commonly seen below weirs and sluice gates where a
smooth stream of water suddenly rises at a foaming front. In this case, (139) describes
the speed of the water, since the front itself is more or less stationary.
interaction of two solitons
When water is shallow but not extremely shallow, so that correction terms of the order
of (D/λ)2 are significant, waves of small amplitude become slightly dispersive (see
below Waves on deep water). In this case, a localized disturbance on the surface of a
river or canal, which is guided by the banks in such a way that it can propagate in one
direction only, is liable to spread as it propagates. If its amplitude is not small, however,
the tendency to spread due to dispersion may in special circumstances be subtly
balanced by the factors that cause waves of relatively large amplitude to form bores, and
the result is a localized hump in the surface, of symmetrical shape, which does not
spread at all. The phenomenon was first observed on a canal near Edinburgh in 1834 by
a Scottish engineer named Scott Russell; he later wrote a graphic account of following
on horseback, for well over a kilometre, a “large solitary elevation . . . which continued
its course along the channel apparently without change of form.” What Scott Russell saw
is now called a soliton. Solitons on canals can have various widths, but the smaller the
width the larger the height must be and the faster the soliton travels. Thus, if a high,
narrow soliton is formed behind a low, broad one, it will catch up with the low one. It
turns out that, when the high soliton does so, it passes through the low one and emerges
with its shape unchanged (see Figure 7).

It is now recognized that many of the nonlinear differential equations that appear
in diverse branches of physics have solutions of large amplitude corresponding to
solitons and that the remarkable capacity of solitons for surviving encounters with other
solitons is universal. This discovery has stimulated much interest among
mathematicians and physicists, and understanding of solitons is expanding rapidly.