The wicking of liquid into a paper-like swelling porous medium made from cellulose and superabsorbent fibers was modeled using Darcy’s law. The work is built on a previous study in which the Washburn equation, modified to account for swelling, was used to predict wicking in a composite of cellulose and superabsorbent fibers. In a new wicking model proposed here, Darcy’s law for flow in porous m...

The dynamics of droplet spreading on two-dimensional wicking surfaces were studied using square arrays of Si nanopillars. It was observed that the wicking film always precedes the droplet edge during the spreading process causing the droplet to effectively spread on a Cassie-Baxter surface composed of solid and liquid phases. Unlike the continual spreading of the wicking film, however, the drop...

The purpose of this work is to assess and develop experimental techniques that allowwicking measurement over a wide range of textiles. Various kinds of fabrics, nonwoven layers and anelectro spinning nylon layer were used as the test materials. A syringe is used to drop a 0.02 g spot ofdistilled water on the sample and a digital camera to take pictures simultaneously. When the wickingprocess st...

An automated liquid column height measurement technique using the total internal reflection of a collimated laser beam from the convex meniscus surface is proposed. This new technique can alleviate the shortcomings of the traditional cathetometer that tends to introduce user bias. Experimental measurements and theoretical predictions have been conducted to examine the detected signal broadening...

We performed an experiment similar to that of Figure 2 but using saturated sugar solution as the wicking fluid. This system suppresses dissolution of the dried sugar, thus the pore structure of the strips should remain constant during wet-out, and the framework of the conventional Lucas-Washburn relationship should apply (as it does for untreated strips, so long as the meaning of r is not over-...

Characterization of transport and absorption properties of nanofiber webs is a challenge, because in many cases the material is soft and cannot withstand the stresses exerted by the standard instruments. In this paper, we report on development of a new technique for materials characterization. We propose to conduct wicking and permeability experiments for full characterization of the nanowebs. ...

We report a wicking material based on nanostructured TiO2 (NST) for the application of flat heat pipes. Heat pipes adopt wicking materials to achieve some unique functions that thermal siphons could not achieve[1], and they have found their applications as cooling systems in a wide variety of areas such as spacecraft and electronics. Different kinds of materials such as carbon nanotubes[2], nan...

Cost-effective nanotechnology-based waterrepellent treatments for clothing fabrics are now commercially available. The effectiveness of these durable water repellent (DWR) fabric treatments were evaluated for application to military uniforms. The addition of a non-wicking finish to clothing fabric negatively impacts comfort in hot and humid environments. Clothing comfort may be improved by refi...

1Department of Nutrition, School of Mathematics, Science and Engineering, University of the Incarnate Word, CPO #311, 4301 Broadway, San Antonio, Texas 78209, USA 2Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 143, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia *Corresponding author: Lynette R. Goldberg, PhD Faculty of Health School...

Water absorption and transport property of textiles is important since it affects wear comfort, efficiency of treatment and functionality of product. This paper introduces an accurate and reliable measurement tester, which is based on gravimetric and image analysis technique, for characterising the transplanar and in-plane wicking property of fabrics. The uniqueness of this instrument is that i...