Characterization of Heat Transfer Fluids by Surface Tension and Contact Angle Measurements

It is required in heat transfer applications that a coolant fluid makes and retains contact with the surface being cooled. This phenomenon is called surface wettability. Surface tension and contact angle measurements are effective tools used to measure the degree of surface wettability of liquid coolants. In this work, we carried out surface tension and contact angle measurements of pure and binary mixture: water, ethylene glycol and water-ethylene glycol were studied on a polished steel substrate in a closed environmental chamber at various temperatures. We reckon from our results that heat transfer properties of coolant fluids can be tuned by surface tension and contact angle measurements.