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.