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Surface tension of flowing soap films

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2018

Aakash Sane Open the ORCID record for Aakash Sane[Opens in a new window] ,
Shreyas Mandre Open the ORCID record for Shreyas Mandre[Opens in a new window]  and
Ildoo Kim Open the ORCID record for Ildoo Kim[Opens in a new window]
Aakash Sane
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
Shreyas Mandre
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
Ildoo Kim*
Affiliation:
School of Engineering, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: ildoo_kim@brown.edu
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Abstract

The surface tension of flowing soap films is measured with respect to the film thickness and the concentration of soap solution. We perform this measurement by measuring the curvature of the nylon wires that bound the soap film channel and use the measured curvature to parametrize the relation between the surface tension and the tension of the wire. We find that the surface tension of our soap films increases when the film is relatively thin or is made of soap solution of low concentration; otherwise, it approaches an asymptotic value of $30~\text{mN}~\text{m}^{-1}$ . A simple adsorption model with only two parameters describes our observations reasonably well. With our measurements, we are also able to estimate the Gibbs elasticity of our soap film.

JFM classification

Interfacial Flows (free surface): Interfacial Flows (free surface)
Type
JFM Rapids
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 841 , 25 April 2018 , R2
Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press 

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