Experimental study on effect of surface vibration on micro textured surfaces with hydrophobic and hydrophilic materials

Abstract

Artificial hydrophobic surfaces have been studied in the last ten years in an effort to understand the effects of structured micro- and nano-scale features on droplet motion and self-cleaning mechanisms. Among these structured surfaces, micro-textured surfaces consisting of a combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic materials have been designed, fabricated and characterized to understand how surface properties and morphology affect enhanced self-cleaning mechanisms. However, use of micro textured surfaces leads to a strong pinning effect that takes place between the droplets and the hydrophobic-hydrophilic edge, leading to a significant contact angle hysteresis effect. This research study focuses on the effects of surface vibrations on droplet shedding at different inclined angles on micro-textured surfaces. Surface vibration and shedding processes were experimentally characterized using a high speed imaging system. Experimental results show that droplets under the influence of surface vibration depict different contour morphologies when vibrating at different resonance frequencies. Moreover, droplet sliding angles can be reduced through surface vibration when the proper combination of droplet size and surface morphology is prescribed.