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Determining the wettability of granular alumina by aluminum–magnesium alloys using the infiltration method
Author(s) -
Kocaefe Duygu,
Ergin Guvenc,
Kocaefe Yasar
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.2926
Subject(s) - wetting , magnesium , infiltration (hvac) , materials science , aluminium , capillary action , contact angle , filtration (mathematics) , composite material , metallurgy , mathematics , statistics
Wettability of the granular bed media influences the efficiency of aluminum filtration. This project was undertaken to develop a method for determining the wettability of the granular media in order to evaluate its suitability for filtration. The wetting characteristics of different granular alumina particles by aluminum–magnesium alloys were studied using the infiltration method. The contact angles for rough as well as smooth surfaces were determined, and alumina particles were classified according to their wetting characteristics. The results were consistent and showed that it is possible to differentiate the wetting characteristics of different alumina samples with the infiltration method. A capillary model based on the energy balance was developed to analyze the experimental data. The model uses an average capillary pore size. For one type of alumina, this model was extended to carry out the analysis using a capillary pore size distribution. Similar results were found in both cases. This paper describes the experimental and modeling work, and the results are presented and discussed. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.