Liquid-Infused Surfaces with Trapped Air (LISTA) for Drag Force Reduction

Superhydrophobic (SHP) surfaces are known for their drag-reducing attributes thanks to their ability to trap air in their surface pores and thereby reduce the contact between water and the frictional solid area. SHP surfaces are prone to failure under elevated pressures or because of air-layer dissolution into the surrounding water. Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) or liquid-infused surfaces (LIS) in which the trapped air is replaced with a lubricant have been proposed in the literature as a way of eliminating the air dissolution problem as well as improving the surface stability under pressure. While an LIS surface has been shown to reduce drag for flow of water-glycerol mixture (ref 18), no significant drag reduction has yet been reported for the flow of water (a lower viscosity fluid) over LIS. In this concern, we have designed a new surface in which a layer of air is trapped underneath the infused lubricant to reduce the frictional forces preventing the LIS to provide drag reduction for water or any fluid with a viscosity less than that of the lubricant. Drag reduction performance of such surfaces, referred to here as liquid-infused surfaces with trapped air (LISTA), is predicted by solving the biharmonic equation for the water-oil-air three-phase system in transverse grooves with enhanced meniscus stability thanks to double-reentry designs. For the arbitrary dimensions considered in our proof-of-concept study, LISTA designs showed 20-37% advantage over their LIS counterparts.