An experimental investigation of the surface tension of seawater

Surface tension of seawater was measured for absolute salinities S = (20.01, 35.18, 40.49, 79.39, 121.54) g/kg across a temperature range of T = (0 - 90)°C at atmospheric pressure using the Wilhelmy plate method. The uncertainty within measurements varied between 0.04 - 0.33 mN/m with the average uncertainty being 0.12 mN/m. The experimental procedures were validated with tests conducted on ACS reagent grade water and aqueous sodium chloride solutions. A best fit correlation was developed expressing surface tension of seawater as a function of temperature and salinity. The average absolute deviation between measurements and the correlation was 0.19% while the maximum deviation was 0.60%. The surface tension of seawater was found to be comparable to within 1.37% of the surface tension of aqueous sodium chloride. The surface tension of 0.2 [mu]m microfiltered and ultraviolet radiation treated natural seawater was found to be similar to that of laboratory prepared seawater.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2014

Author dc:creator

• Nayar, Kishor Govind

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• John H. Lienhard, V.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92181

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/92181