Surface Tension Measurement Device

The surface tension of a fluid may be an essential aspect in many investigations, and there are equipment that can measure the forces on the fluid’s surface. This project was completed for one of the Chemical Engineering School laboratories at Iran University of Science and Technology. The purpose of the device was to characterize a particular petroleum fluid as part of a research study.
The device is controlled by an Arduino microcontroller, which also has an LCD screen and some controls that the operator can interact with. The microcontroller connects to a computer software via a serial port and records the loadcell data, which will be used to determine the surface tension of a particular fluid. A linear system will raise a small container that contains the fluid, and the fluid will then interact with a load cell at the top with an attached ring and the forces are monitored. The speed should be small enough to yield acceptable results, so one of the challenges that must be considered beforehand is designing the drive system in a way that these tiny speeds are achievable. To achieve this, A high microstepping motor and driver are used alongside a drive system that reduces the speed. The system is able to successfully achieve a linear velocity of 1mm/min.