Capillary Wetting and Interfacial Phenomena in Microstructures

Fluid penetration into capillary tubes resulting from the interplay between solid-liquid adhesive interactions and liquid-liquid cohesive interactions is a ubiquitous phenomenon. A wide variety of technological applications, e.g. oil extraction through porous rocks, washing process with detergents, surface coating etc., are based fundamentally on capillarity effects. As a result, studies with respect to the physics of capillary flows, both from the engineering and applied sciences and from a theoretical point of view, have been constantly renewed for almost a century. This work consists of two parts. The first part presents experimental investigations on capillary flow of simple liquids. In the second part, capillary flow of liquids laden with nanoparticles termed as nanofluids is sought. Results from this work can help enhance understanding of the capillary flow from simple to complex fluids, specifically from an experimental point of view.