INTERFACIAL FORCE-FIELD CHARACTERIZATION IN A CONSTRAINED VAPOR BUBBLE THERMOSIPHON

Isothermal profiles of the extended meniscus in a quartz cuvette were measured in the earth's gravitational field using an image-analyzing interferometer that is based on computer-enhanced video microscopy of the naturally occurring interference fringes. These profiles are a function of the sb ess field. Experimentally, the augmented Young - Laplace equation is an excellent model for the force field at the solid- liquid- vapor interfaces for heptane and pentane menisci on quartz and tetradecane on SFL6. Effects of refractive indices of the solid and liquid on the measurement techniques were demonstrated Experimentally obtained values of the disjoining pressure and dispersion constants were compared to those predicted from the Dzyaloshinskii- Lifshitz - Pitaevskii theory for an ideal surface and reasonable agreements were obtained. A parameter introduced gives a quantitative measurement of the closeness of the system to equilibrium. The nonequilibrium behavior of this parameter is also presented.