Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France, CEA, LETI, MINATEC Campus, Grenoble, France, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, United States, Tasso Inc., 1631 15th Ave. W, Seattle, WA, United States

Capillary-based microfluidic systems are increasingly used in the fields of biotechnology, medicine, thermies, energy and space. In such systems the energy source responsible for the flow is the surface energy of the walls. Extending the Lucas-Washburn-Rideal (LWR) law, a general expression for the velocity and marching distance of an open capillary flow, valid for any channel geometry, has been reported in the literature. This expression stems from the balance between the capillary force and the wall friction. In the case of non-polar liquids and some polar fluids, the introduction of the Zisman's relation between the cosine of the contact angle and the surface tension of the liquid brings a new perspective on the general expression of the capillary velocity. In this work,it is shown how the use of the Zisman's plot reduces the complexity of the prediction of a SCF and enables the determination of the maximum capillary velocity.

Lucas-Washburn-Rideal (LWR) law, Sponatneous capillary flow (SCF), Zisman plot

Biotechnology, Capillarity, Capillary flow, Capillary velocity, Channel geometry, General expression, Lucas-Washburn-Rideal (LWR) law, Micro fluidic system, Nonpolar liquids, Sponatneous capillary flow (SCF), Zisman plot, Velocity