The meniscus on the outside of a small circular cylinder

Abstract

The method of matched asymptotic expansions is used to solve the differential equation describing the shape of a meniscus on the outside of a circular cylinder. Since the perturbation quantity is proportional to the cylinder radius, the solution is valid basically for small oylinders. The predicted meniscus height is compared with numerical data to determine the accuracy of the two-term result; the third term is found but does not improve the estimate.