tension

[ten´shun]

1. the act of stretching.

2. the condition of being stretched or strained; the degree to which something is stretched or strained.

3. the partial pressure of a component of a gas mixture or of a gas dissolved in a fluid, such as oxygen in blood.

5. mental, emotional, or nervous strain.

6. hostility between two or more individuals or groups.

arterial tension blood pressure within an artery.

carbon dioxide tension the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in the blood, noted as pCO₂ in blood gas analysis. See also respiration.

electric tension electromotive force.

intraocular tension intraocular pressure.

surface tension tension or resistance that acts to preserve the integrity of a surface.

tissue tension a state of equilibrium between tissues and cells that prevents overaction of any part.

sur·face ten·sion (γ, σ),

the expression of intermolecular attraction at the surface of a liquid, in contact with air or another gas, a solid, or another immiscible liquid, tending to pull the molecules of the liquid inward from the surface; dimensional formula: mt^-2.

Farlex Partner Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

sur·face ten·sion

(sŭr'făs ten'shŭn)

The expression of intermolecular attraction at the surface of a liquid, in contact with air or another gas, a solid, or another immiscible liquid, tending to pull the molecules of the liquid inward from the surface; dimensional formula: mt^-2.

Medical Dictionary for the Health Professions and Nursing © Farlex 2012

surface tension

A property of a liquid surface, arising from unbalanced molecular cohesive forces, in which the surface behaves as if it were covered by a thin elastic membrane under tension and tends to adopt a spherical shape.

Collins Dictionary of Medicine © Robert M. Youngson 2004, 2005

Surface tension

The attraction of molecules in a fluid for each other.

Mentioned in: Surfactant

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References in periodicals archive

A water surface tension force that is twice the robot weight pushes down on the robot, and in addition the induced torque causes a dramatic increase of friction on the robot's hind legs.

Robotic Cockroach Explores Underwater

The polymer chains are, therefore, located on the surface of the coating and keep the surface tension constant during the curing process.

Next-Generation Additives: Improve recoatability of cured coatings

Surface tension values pass through a central point indicating that the studied interval was suitable, when the surface tension reduction was used as a primary criterion for the production of the biosurfactant.

Production and characterization of a biosurfactant produced by Streptomyces sp. DPUA 1559 isolated from lichens of the Amazon region

The surface tension of PAAD on the CMCs was firstly reduced and then increased with the increasing of DPA.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Aqueous Properties of an Amphiphilic Terpolymer with a Novel Nonionic Surfmer

In this study, we have also considered the effect of surface tension at the free surface and the porosity in the undulating bottom, which is an endeavour to take the problem to another step forward towards a real and practical situation occurring in the water wave scattering problem.

Water-waves Scattering by Permeable Bottom in Two-layer Fluid in the Presence of Surface Tension

To obtain reliable results, we used the density-matrix-renormalization group (DMRG) method [11-16], and we showed numerically that the slope dependence of the surface tension is discontinuous (note that, in mathematical terms, "disconnected" is a more accurate description than "discontinuous") at low temperatures at equilibrium.

Profile of a Faceted Macrostep Caused by Anomalous Surface Tension

On the other hand, the surface tension gradient caused by the temperature gradient affects the motion of the interface, which inhibits perturbations moving in the same direction of the temperature gradient and promotes perturbations moving in the opposite direction of the temperature gradient.

Study on the Instability of Two-Phase Flow in the Heat-Absorbing Tube of Trough Solar Collector

4 illustrates the changes of the pressure inside the vapor bubble with respect to the non-dimensional time during the growth and collapse phases in the cases of with and without the surface tension. As it is clear in figure 4, in the case of existence of the surface tension, during the growth phase of the vapor bubble, due to the inertia the vapor bubble can not grow enough than the case of without surface tension.

Numerical study on a bubble dynamic generated by ultrasound waves in liquid-saturated porous media

This induces a slightly larger amount of surface tension and inhibition in the growth of aggregation nuclei in the GHSA solution in the presence of [beta]-CyD and Tre, compared to HSA.

Inhibitory effects of some carbohydrates on nano-globular aggregation of both normal and glycated albumin

Quantitative measurement of biosurfactant production: Reduction in surface tension was used as one method.

Isolation, Screening and Functional Characterization of Biosurfactant Producing Bacteria Isolated from Crude Oil Contaminated Site