Water droplet impact on elastic superhydrophobic surfaces.

ABSTRACT: Water droplet impact on surfaces is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature and industry, where the time of contact between droplet and surface influences the transfer of mass, momentum and energy. To manipulate and reduce the contact time of impacting droplets, previous publications report tailoring of surface microstructures that influence the droplet - surface interface. Here we show that surface elasticity also affects droplet impact, where a droplet impacting an elastic superhydrophobic surface can lead to a two-fold reduction in contact time compared to equivalent rigid surfaces. Using high speed imaging, we investigated the impact dynamics on elastic nanostructured superhydrophobic substrates having membrane and cantilever designs with stiffness 0.5-7630 N/m. Upon impact, the droplet exci

SUBMITTER: Weisensee PB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4962083 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature