The design of fluids management processes in the low-gravity environment of space requires an accurate description of capillarity-controlled flow in containers. Here we consider the spontaneous redistribution of fluid along an interior corner of a container due to capillary forces. The analytical portion of the work presents an asymptotic formulation in the limit of a slender fluid column, slight surface curvature along the flow direction z, small inertia, and low gravity. The scaling introduced explicitly accounts for much of the variation of flow resistance due to geometry and so the effects of corner geometry can be distinguished from those of surface curvature. For the special cases of a constant height boundary condition and a constant flow condition, the similarity solutions yield that the length of the fluid column increases as t1/2 and t3/5, respectively. In the experimental portion of the work, measurements from a 2.2 s drop tower are reported. An extensive data set, collected over a previously unexplored range of flow parameters, includes estimates of repeatability and accuracy, the role of inertia and column slenderness, and the effects of corner angle, container geometry, and fluid properties. At short times, the fluid is governed by inertia (t[lsim ]tLc). Afterwards, an intermediate regime (tLc[lsim ]t[lsim ] tH) can be shown to be modelled by a constant-flow-like similarity solution. For t[ges ]tH it is found that there exists a location zH at which the interface height remains constant at a value h(zH, t)=H which can be shown to be well predicted. Comprehensive comparison is made between the analysis and measurements using the constant height boundary condition. As time increases, it is found that the constant height similarity solution describes the flow over a lengthening interval which extends from the origin to the invariant tip solution. For t[Gt ]tH, the constant height solution describes the entire flow domain. A formulation applicable throughout the container (not just in corners) is presented in the limit of long times.

Since the inception of 3D printing, an evolutionary process has taken place in which specific user and customer needs have crossed paths with the capabilities of a growing number of machines to create value-added businesses. Even today, over 30 years later, the growth of 3D printing and its utilization for the good of society is often limited by the various users' understanding of the technology for their specific needs. This article presents an overview of current 3D printing technologies and shows numerous examples from a multitude of fields from manufacturing to education.

Irregular conduits, complex surfaces, and porous media often manifest more than one geometric wetting condition for spontaneous capillary flows. As a result, different regions of the flow exhibit different rates of flow, all the while sharing common dynamical capillary pressure boundary conditions. The classic problem of sudden capillary rise in tubes with interior corners is revisited from this perspective and solved numerically in the self-similar ∼t 1/2 visco-capillary limità la Lucas-Washburn. Useful closed-form analytical solutions are obtained in asymptotic limits appropriate for many practical flows in conduits containing one or more interior corner. The critically wetted corners imbibe fluid away from the bulk capillary rise, shortening the viscous column length and slightly increasing the overall flow rate. The extent of the corner flow is small for many closed conduits, but becomes significant for flows along open channels and the method is extended to approximate hemiwicking flows across triangular grooved surfaces. It is shown that an accurate application of the method depends on an accurate a priori assessment of the competing viscous cross-section length scales, and the expedient Laplacian scaling method is applied herein toward this effect.

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