Flexible conformable hydrophobized surfaces for turbulent flow drag reduction

Brennan, Joseph, Geraldi, Nicasio, Morris, Robert, Fairhurst, David, McHale, Glen and Newton, Michael (2015) Flexible conformable hydrophobized surfaces for turbulent flow drag reduction. Scientific Reports, 5. pp. 1-9. ISSN 2045-2322

[img]
Preview
Text (Full text)
Mchale_turbulentflowdragreduction.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

Download (922kB) | Preview
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep10267

Abstract

In recent years extensive work has been focused onto using superhydrophobic surfaces for drag reduction applications. Superhydrophobic surfaces retain a gas layer, called a plastron, when submerged underwater in the Cassie-Baxter state with water in contact with the tops of surface roughness features. In this state the plastron allows slip to occur across the surface which results in a drag reduction. In this work we report flexible and relatively large area superhydrophobic surfaces produced using two different methods: Large roughness features were created by electrodeposition on copper meshes; Small roughness features were created by embedding carbon nanoparticles (soot) into Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Both samples were made into cylinders with a diameter under 12mm. To characterize the samples, scanning electron microscope (SEM) images and confocal microscope images were taken. The confocal microscope images were taken with each sample submerged in water to show the extent of the plastron. The hydrophobized electrodeposited copper mesh cylinders showed drag reductions of up to 32% when comparing the superhydrophobic state with a wetted out state. The soot covered cylinders achieved a 30% drag reduction when comparing the superhydrophobic state to a plain cylinder. These results were obtained for turbulent flows with Reynolds numbers 10,000 to 32,500.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Subjects: F200 Materials Science
Department: Faculties > Engineering and Environment > Mathematics, Physics and Electrical Engineering
Depositing User: Becky Skoyles
Date Deposited: 07 Apr 2015 08:51
Last Modified: 17 Dec 2023 16:32
URI: https://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/21958

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics