Partic. vol. 9 no. 4 pp. 381-386 (August 2011)
doi: 10.1016/j.partic.2010.11.004

A capillary force model for interactions between two spheres

Amir Farrokh Payam^*, Morteza Fathipour

a.farrokhpayam@ece.ut.ac.ir

Abstract

Based on the method of energy principle, an analytical approach for computing the capillary force for sphere/sphere geometry is presented in this paper. In modeling the capillary force, we consider spheres with both equal and non-equal radii, for both symmetric and asymmetric configurations at liquid/solid interfaces. We use numerical analysis to investigate the validity and efficiency of the derived model. The effect of various parameters including humidity, distance between two spheres, radii of spheres and contact angles on the meniscus force are investigated. Finally the results obtained from the model are compared with experimental measurements, and the accuracy and precision of the presented approach is verified.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Interaction; Capillary force; Humidity; Energy methods; Sphere particle