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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Fabrication of Superhydrophobic Metal Surfaces for Anti-Icing Applications
Published on: August 15, 2018
Water Impalement Resistance and Drag Reduction of the Superhydrophobic Surface with Hydrophilic Strips
Yanlin Cao1,2, Xiaochao Liu1,2, Liangpei Zhang1
1State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems, Department of Mechanics and Engineering Science, BIC-ESAT, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Abstract:
Superhydrophobic surfaces (SHS) offer versatile applications by trapping an air layer within microstructures, while water jet impact can destabilize this air layer and deactivate the functions of the SHS. The current work presents for the first time that introducing parallel hydrophilic strips to SHS (SHS-s) can simultaneously improve both water impalement resistance and drag reduction (DR). Compared with SHS, SHS-s demonstrates a 125% increase in the enduring time against the impact of water jet with velocity of 11.9 m/s and a 97% improvement in DR at a Reynolds number of 1.4 × 104. The key mechanism lies in the enhanced stability of the air layer due to air confinement by the adjacent three-phase contact lines. These lines not only impede air drainage through the surface microstructures during water jet impact, entrapping the air layer to resist water impalement, but also prevent air floating up due to buoyancy in Taylor-Couette flow, ensuring an even spread of the air layer all over the rotor, boosting DR. Moreover, failure modes of SHS under water jet impact are revealed to be related to air layer decay and surface structure destruction. This mass-producible structured surface holds the potential for widespread use in DR for hulls, autonomous underwater vehicles, and submarines.
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