ABSTRACT
The mechanical behaviour of liquid bridges is revisited with the emphasis in experimental work under M G conditions. A liquid bridge is a liquid mass spanning between two solid supports and held together by surface tension and wetting (i.e. capillary) forces, provided the other mechanical loads (due to gravity, vibration, rotation) are smaller. Apart of its own interest on ground for natural capillary systems, it offers some unique characteristics that makes it interesting for fluid physics research under M G . On the one side, the liquid bridge is the simplest mechanical model of the floating zone technique of crystal growth, a key process in material sciences for purification. On the other side, a particular instance of liquid bridges (the cylindrical shape) is one of the simpler free interfaces one can establish in space; the other (simplest) cases, the flat surface and the sphere are much more difficult to handle. Consequently, the liquid bridge configuration has been extensively used to study a number of difficult problems like Marangoni convection among others.
