A Conductance Study of Reducing Volume Liquid Bridges

Electrical conductance study of θ-liquid bridges

“…2, is the same with the one used in [13,14], so only some essential elements are presented here. Liquid bridges are formed between the tips of two equal diameter solid rods which are aligned vertically.…”

“…The above problem is usually solved using direct discretization methods (i.e., finite elements) or transformation to a system of ODE's with the arc length of the liquid bridge as the independent variable [13,14]. In both cases, convergence problems are encountered due to the excessive parameter sensitivity.…”

“…An approximate solution of the conductance problem for a slightly deformed cylindrical object connecting two infinite reservoirs is well known in the heat transfer literature [26]. This solution has been extended using the singular perturbation expansion technique [14] to admit larger surface deformations. For the particular case at hand the final result for the conductance is:…”

“…In [13], the conductance of constant volume liquid bridges edge-pinned between two vertical restricted rods (r-bridges) was analyzed when their length was varied. In [14], the technique was employed to the case of edge-pinned liquid bridges of reducing volume where slow evaporation was employed as a means to achieve a smooth bridge volume reduction. Here, the conductance technique is extended to the case of constant volume liquid bridges forming between two horizontal plane surfaces to which, however, the contact line of the bridge is not pinned but wetting is controlled by the contact angle as a parameter (θ -bridges).…”

“…[12]. Recently, the apparent electrical conductance of conducting liquid bridges has been suggested as an alternative characteristic parameter from which liquid bridge features can be directly deduced [13,14]. In [13], the conductance of constant volume liquid bridges edge-pinned between two vertical restricted rods (r-bridges) was analyzed when their length was varied.…”