title: Accurate surface tension measurement of glass melts by the pendant drop method.
abstract: A pendant drop tensiometer, coupled with image digitization technology and a best-fitting algorithm, was built to accurately measure the surface tension of glass melts at high temperatures. More than one thousand edge-coordinate points were obtained for a pendant glass drop. These edge points were fitted with the theoretical drop profiles derived from the Young-Laplace equation to determine the surface tension of glass melt. The uncertainty of the surface tension measurements was investigated. The measurement uncertainty (σ) could be related to a newly defined factor of drop profile completeness (Fc): the larger the Fc is, the smaller σ is. Experimental data showed that the uncertainty of the surface tension measurement when using this pendant drop tensiometer could be ±3 mN∕m for glass melts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, 43 Keelung Rd., Sec. 4, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yao-Yuan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Ming-Ya
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yi-Lin
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Shi-Yow
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lin