The Capillary Rising Mechanism in a Packed Bed of Spherical Particles

Abstract

The capillary rising phenomenon is controlled by the complicated intersticial structure in the packed bed. In order to investigate the correlation between the capillary rise and the intersticial structure of a packed bed, the capillary rising velocity is measured for a packed bed of equal sphere size.
The experimental results show that the effective suction head for capillary rise depends on the intersticial structure of the bed. The liquid rises through the remaining air cavities in the packed bed. The relationship between the retained air volume and the particle volume fraction is explained from the pervious theory of the pore size distribution in the packed bed.