A new method of determining the contact angle made by a sessile drop upon a horizontal surface (sessile drop contact angle)

Abstract

The contact angle may be measured by magnifying the projected image of a sessile drop, assuming the profile is elliptical, and finding the Cartesian coordinates of selected points on the profile. By selecting groups of three such points the mean equation to the outline can be determined and thus the tangent at the observed point of contact. The method was tested using water drops on various steel surfaces and using mercury on glass. Results showed generally satisfactory agreement with those obtained using the tilting plate method and also with those obtained by other investigators who have employed analytical methods to define the drop shape. If the sessile drop shape is assumed to be a part-oblate spheroid, a minimum free-energy analysis illuminates several experimentally observed features of its shape.