Anti-icing Surfaces Research Articles

Experimental study on icing and anti-icing of a rotating conical spinner

Icing and hot-air anti-icing tests of a rotating conical spinner were carried out in an icing wind tunnel. The surface temperature was measured using a calibrated infrared thermal imager. The icing process and the water film flow on the spinner were recorded by a high-speed camera. In the icing test with temperature of −21.7 °C and LWC (liquid water content) of 0.5 g/m3, white rime ice grows and covers the entire surface. From the cone tip the ice thickness decreases from 5.8 mm to a minimum of 3.2 mm, while in the rear part the ice thickness increases. In the icing test with temperature of −9.4 °C and LWC of 1.0 g/m3, long pine needle-shaped ice forms downstream the cone tip area. The anti-icing surface temperature first increases and then decreases along the spinner generatrix, with a maximum value near the tip. Under nearly identical incoming flow conditions the higher the mass flow of hot air is, the greater the decrease in surface temperature is. For the anti-icing tests with LWC of 0.5 g/m3, from t = 40 s, as the mass flow of the hot air is low the spinner surface is completely covered by water film. There exists a complete evaporation area near the cone tip with a high mass flow. For the anti-icing tests with LWC of 1.0 g/m3, from t = 40 s the spinner surface is completely covered by water film in all test runs.

The isotropic and anisotropic self-cleaning surfaces by using only femtosecond laser

The current study describes a technique for surface modification that uses only femtosecond laser pulses that are extremely brief. The development in this research is the feature with periodically and directionally fabricated hierarchical micrometre scaled shapes with nanometer scaled structures. Although the developed features have complex structural makeup, they exhibit isotropic and anisotropic behaviour in superhydrophobicity. The developed Stainless Steel AISI 304 surface with appropriate modification using a femtosecond laser is the used method in this study. The recommended method may be applied to other vulnerable surfaces, including ceramic, polymers, semiconductors, and insulators as well as metals and alloys. The few functional fields that may use this method include self-cleaning surfaces, antibacterial surfaces, anticorrosion surfaces, anti-icing surfaces, and anti-biofouling surfaces. The Opto digital microscope with nanoscale resolution profoundly assisted us in finding developed features in its accuracy. We studied all of the featured topographies using sophisticated imaging tools. The presence of the preplanned features can also be demonstrated by field emission and tungsten filament scanning electron microscopy, and by atomic force microscopy. Studies on hydrophobicity carried out with Matlab assistance included a digital goniometer. Surfaces that are isotropic and directional with hydrophobic behaviour differed by water rolling on 0.5–3.5° tilted angles. All the manufactured superhydrophobic surfaces are reported to be above 155° and at most 167.13° is also a notable value. The results of the conical microspikes, which mimic a lotus leaf, show that they are exclusively hydrophobic isotropic at 0.5° of sliding angle. Biomimetic sinusoidal microgrooves in grass leaves reported remarkably directional or anisotropic hydrophobicity at a 2.5° rolling angle. So that we can elaborate on the use of femtosecond laser on hydrophobicity, we are reporting the results that have been proven to the appropriate fields. The ultrashort pulsed micromachining is used as the low waste machining technique's least time-consuming operation.

Optimization of power distribution for electrothermal anti-icing systems by differential evolution algorithm

Ice accretion on windward components of aircraft will seriously threaten flight safety. Electrothermal anti-icing systems can prevent icing on the critical components. They have great potential for lightweight and energy-saving aircraft. This paper develops a numerical anti-icing model coupled with heat conduction in a multi-layer composite structure to evaluate the anti-icing performance. Furthermore, a differential evolution algorithm is adopted to optimize the power distribution of an electrothermal anti-icing system with a fixed heating element layout to find the minimal power consumption to ensure that no runback water flows out of the protection area. The maximum anti-icing surface temperature, runback water range, and the maximum temperature in the multi-layer composite structure are selected as constraints during optimization to guarantee the effectiveness of the anti-icing protection system. The feasibility rule based on a constraint violation is deployed to handle the constraints. The distributions of internal temperature of the multi-layer structure, anti-icing surface temperature, and runback water are chosen to evaluate the performance of the electrothermal anti-icing system. Comparing these performance parameters of optimized and baselines cases shows that the differential evolution algorithm can obtain minimal power consumption based on the anti-icing model under fixed icing conditions and heating element layout. The analysis of different heat flux terms indicates that the heat power distribution of the electrothermal anti-icing system should match convection heat transfer coefficient distribution on the surface to increase the energy efficiency.

Nanodroplet impacts on hydrophobic/superhydrophobic surfaces with point textures

Reducing the contact time between droplets and solid surfaces is important in anti-icing surface design. The present work investigates the impact dynamics of nanodroplets on hydrophobic/superhydrophobic surfaces decorated by point textures via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, aiming to significantly reduce the contact by the point textures. Based on distinguishing outcome regimes into a phase diagram, the point texture is found to not affect the outcome regimes of sticky, bouncing, and splash, whereas the internal rupture regime is significantly enhanced so that the new outcome in this regime, ring-bouncing, which is reported for the first time at the nanoscale, is also significantly reinforced. Impacting nanodroplets with ring-bouncing behaviors have remarkably reduced the contact time due to the saved retraction time via creating a retraction of both inner and outer contact lines. Subsequently, an energy conservation equation from the initial to the bouncing states is established for identifying the boundary of this outcome regime, which shows good agreement with the outcome phase diagram. Finally, impacting nanodroplets with three diameters of 8, 10, and 14 nm are implemented for understanding how the ratio of the droplet size to the texture point affects the reduction of the contact time. The MD results show the cases of 8-nm nanodroplets displaying the best performance of reducing the contact time by 52%, which is superior to current studies in reducing the contact time at the nanoscale. This can be explained by the lower ratio of droplet diameter to texture size leading to a further shorter distance of retraction after the internal rupture and hence a shorter contact time.

Robust Anti-Icing Surfaces Based on Dual Functionality─Microstructurally-Induced Ice Shedding with Superimposed Nanostructurally-Enhanced Water Shedding.

Research into anti-icing surfaces often conflates the two separate problems of ice accumulation: water adhesion and ice adhesion. The body feathers of perpetually ice-free penguins are very good natural examples of anti-icing surfaces, which use two different mitigation strategies for the two disparate problems. Herein, we mimic the form of the feather's wire-like structure, which is decorated with superimposed nanogrooves by laser micromachining fine woven wire cloths. Post-processing techniques also allow us to isolate the role of surface chemistry by creating both hydrophilic and hydrophobic versions of the synthetic anti-icing surfaces. Our results show that water-shedding and ice-shedding characteristics are indeed derived from different physical functions of the hierarchical structure. The microstructure of the woven wire cloth leads to facile interfacial cracking and therefore extremely low ice adhesion strengths; the superimposed laser-induced periodic surface structures with hydrophobic surface chemistry lead to water shedding. Our work shows that by first taking a fracture mechanics approach to designing the ice-shedding function, a robust anti-icing surface can be engineered by separately designing the water-shedding functions.

Effect of Lubricant Viscosity on Wetting Behaviors and Durability of Anti-icing Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces

Icing accretion posed a safety hazard to power lines. Slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) are widely used in anti-icing applications. High-viscosity silicone oil has been reported to improve the durability of SLIPS. However, high viscosity can cause problems such as slow self-healing and weak mobility of water droplets on the surface. Herein, the effect of lubricant viscosity on the wetting behavior and durability of anti-icing SLIPS was investigated. The droplet shedding test was conducted to study the durability of SLIPS. The results show that low-viscosity silicone oil can make the prepared SLIPS have good lubricity and low ice adhesion strength, while high-viscosity silicone oil can improve the durability of SLIPS. Under the condition that SA does not exceed 5° and ice adhesion strength does not exceed 10 kPa, 200 cSt silicone oil can make SLIPS simultaneously exhibit excellent slipperiness and durability.

TiO2-based slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces with excellent ice-phobic performance

Ice formation and accretion on surfaces of instruments such as infrastructures, power lines and aircrafts can trigger serious social danger, economic loss and threaten the safety of lives. It is of practical significance to develop functionalized passive anti-icing surfaces. Herein, we synthesized titanium dioxide nanotube arrays on titanium substrate through anodic oxidation method. The TiO2 nanotube arrays were further modified and infused with perfluoropolyether (PFPE) lubricant to form slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS). The relationship of the nanostructures and the slippery performance, the liquid holding property and anti-icing property of TiO2 based SLIPS was investigated in details. The contact angle hysteresis (CAH) and sliding angles of water droplets on the TiO2 SLIPS are as low as 1° and 4°, respectively, indicating the excellent slippery property of the SLIPS. The CAH of water droplets on TiO2 SLIPS could be still as low as 5° after being treated with 100 mL of flowing water, which show the long term stability and superior liquid holding property of the TiO2 SLIPS. We propose that the excellent slippery property and long term stability for holding liquid of TiO2 SLIPS attribute to the uniform nanostructures, the small diameter of the nanotubes, the smooth surface and high capillary force of TiO2 nanotube arrays. Both the icing delay tests and the ice adhesion force tests conducted on TiO2 SLIPS indicate that the long-term ice-phobic stability is strongly correlated with the surface smoothness and uniformity of nanostructures. The results show that large water droplets with size about 15 μL on TiO2 NT based SLIPS can keep as liquid phase at very low temperature (–15 ℃) for up to 24 h, which exhibits much longer icing delay time at –15 ℃ than most of the reported superhydrophobic surfaces and SLIPS. And the TiO2 SLIPS exhibit very good icing delay effect even after being reused for 17 times at –15 ℃, indicating the superior long-term stability and anti-icing effect of TiO2 SLIPS as passive ice-phobic surfaces. The ice adhesion force of icicles on TiO2 SLIPS was as low as ∼50 kPa after the tenth test, further indicating their long-term stability as anti-icing surfaces. In summary, the TiO2 nanotube arrays based SLIPS obtained in this work exhibit superior slippery property, anti-biofouling, excellent anti-icing property and long term stability after being treated with a large amount of flowing water or reused for many times under very low temperature. This work shows that SLIPS can be applied as ice-phobic surfaces with long term stability at low temperature, potentially useful for their practical applications as anti-icing and ice-phobic surfaces.

Transparency and icephobicity of moth eye-inspired tailored omniphobic surface

ABSTRACT In this work, we presented a facile method to introduce a transparent and anti-icing omniphobic surface fabricated on the glass substrate. The uniform moth eye-inspired structure was generated by the Deep Reactive Ion Etching method and followed by an additional wet etching step to enhance the sharpness of the nanostructure. A hydrophobe compound was assembled on the rough substrate by chemical vapor coating to achieve remarkable liquid-repellent properties. The tensile strength test was conducted using a designed apparatus to evaluate the anti-icing performance of functional surfaces compared to the as-received one. In addition, the optical performance in terms of transmittance and reflectance also was tested and revealed significant optical enhancement owing to the unique design of nanoarrays. The results demonstrated the great potential and proposed design for multifunctional surfaces.

Template-free scalable fabrication of linearly periodic microstructures by controlling ribbing defects phenomenon during forward roll coating

Linear periodic microstructures are of significant importance in various applications, including drag-reduction, biofouling, self-cleaning, and superhydrophobicity. However, practical applications of such surfaces require mass manufacturing techniques, which are highly limited. This study demonstrated a simple template-free scalable manufacturing technique to fabricate linearly periodic microstructure by controlling the ribbing defects in forward roll coating. A viscoelastic polymer nanocomposite with tailored properties was synthesized and utilized as the coating material. The ribbing instabilities were controlled with process parameters that resulted in variable periodicity of the linearly aligned microstructures with a spacing of 114 – 700 µm. The microstructure arrangement also had a linear to random transition as the instabilities increased. The manufactured surface has a high Wenzel roughness factor that ranges from 1.6 to 3.6, which results in water contact angles of 128o to 150o. The linear microstructure films can have critical applications in the mass manufacturing of drag reduction surfaces. The high aspect-ratio microstructure films can also have applications in superhydrophobic, self-cleaning, anti-icing, and anti-biofouling surfaces.

Research Progress of Self-Cleaning, Anti-Icing, and Aging Test Technology of Composite Insulators

Composite insulators are widely used in power systems because of their advantages of light weight, good pollution resistance, and high mechanical strength. With the increasingly serious environmental pollution problem, especially in winter at high latitudes, composite insulators are easily affected by fog, bird droppings, algae, and icing. Long-term exposure to the outdoor insulator surface will cause aging, which will then pose ae potential safety hazard to the stable operation of insulators. Therefore, the self-cleaning, anti-icing, and aging test technologies of composite insulators are particularly important. This paper introduces the research progress and current situation of self-cleaning, anti-icing surface preparation, and aging test technology of composite insulators, and looks forward to the future development of composite insulators.

Fabrication of Anti-Icing Surface Structures on Aluminum Alloy for Aerospace Applications

Icing, the phenomenon of the formation and accumulation of ice or frost on a surface due to the solidification of water droplets at low temperature can be undesirable in many applications. Surface icing can lead to increased energy consumption in aerospace and automotive applications due to increased aerodynamic drag. Ice formation can also present a mechanical and electrical safety hazard, and as such significant work has been done to produce surfaces with anti-icing properties through surface modification to decrease ice formation and adhesion to surfaces. One route toward the generation of anti-icing surfaces is through laser surface processing. Laser micro/nanostructuring of surfaces has advanced greatly in recent years due to advancements in laser source technology and reduction in capital costs for ultrafast femtosecond pulsed machining lasers. Laser material processing offers a rapid, scalable, and non-contact method for fabricating large area anti-icing surfaces. In this work, the production of anti-icing surfaces using femtosecond laser micro-and nanostructuring on aluminum alloy 7075 surfaces was examined. With an aim to optimize the anti-icing properties of the substrates, laser parameters such as pulse energy, repetition rate and beam scanning speed were varied to produce highly defined microstructures on the aluminum surface.Various functional properties such as hydrophobicity and surface roughness are examined.

Dynamic behavior of impinging drops on water repellent surfaces: Machine learning-assisted approach to predict maximum spreading

The study of drop dynamic undergoing collision with solid surfaces seems quite necessary due to its practical applications ranging from coating industries to anti-icing and self-cleaning surfaces. Therefore, we experimentally studied the dynamic of impinging drop on water-repellent surfaces for a wide range of drop properties and initial velocities in terms of weber number (We). We considered the maximum spreading diameter to quantify the spreading dynamic. We modified one of the existing energy-balance models to analytically predict the observed maximum spreading diameters. We showed that above a critical We number (roughly 60–80), the maximum spreading diameter of superhydrophobic surfaces starts to deviate from those of hydrophobic surfaces. Therefore, we incorporated an adjusting factor into the energy-balance model to consider the transition from hydrophobicity to superhydrophobicity. Moreover, we developed a machine learning approach to predict the maximum spreading diameter as a function of drop properties and surface characteristics. Using the machine learning approach, it was found that beyond a critical contact angle (CAadv ∼ 150°–160°) the maximum spreading diameter does not depend on the contact angle anymore. Moreover, for low We numbers, the maximum spreading diameter decrease with increasing the contact angle, while for high We numbers they are directly proportional.

Transparent and durable PDMS(O)/HDTMS anti-icing surfaces derived from candle soot

Preventing icing on exposed surfaces is important in our daily life. However, the transparent and durable anti-icing coating is still a challenge. In this work, we demonstrated a transparent oxidized polydimethylsiloxane/hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (PDMS(O)/HDTMS) coating on slide by using the candle soot (CS) as a sacrificial template. The CS as a product of incomplete combustion of candles with a porous network chain structure was firstly deposited on the PDMS coated slide. After a calcination treatment, the CS was removed while the PDMS layer was oxidized and inherited the unique structure of the CS and became transparent and superhydrophilic. With the help of the HDTMS modification, the final PDMS(O)/HDTMS coating exhibited surperhydrophobic property (WCA = 163°, SA < 1°). The coating can preserve its surperhydrophobic state after different mechanical abrasion, acid/base, UV light exposure and icing/thawing cycles. Beneficial from its surperhydrophobic feature, the coating not only postponed the freezing time of the water droplet from 229 to 1022 s, but also enabled the ice slide away by gravity. In addition, the PDMS(O)/HDTMS was successfully used on the glass insulator to delay the ice accumulation. This work provides a facile and environmentally-friendly method to obtain transparent and durable anti-icing coating.

Superhydrophobic and photothermal deicing composite coating with self-healing and anti-corrosion for anti-icing applications

The phenomenon of surface ice accumulation in low temperature and high humidity environments brings significant challenges to economy, energy, and security. Superhydrophobic surfaces with micro-nano structures are considered as effective anti-icing surfaces. However, deicing can damage the micro-nano structures and increase the ice adhesion strength. Herein, a low-adhesion, superhydrophobic photothermal response coating was introduced by combining micro-nano surface and lubricated surface, which exhibits low adhesion self-healing photothermal de-icing performance. The surface temperature rises rapidly to 85 °C under 1 solar irradiation and the frozen droplet can melt within 150 s. The prepared coating has a contact angle of up to 162° and a rolling angle as low as 4.8°. The superhydrophobicity enabled the coating to have excellent anti-icing property with icing delay times up to 596 s. Ice and frost layers on the coating surface can melt and fall off illuminating with light. In addition, beeswax as phase change materials contributes to the coating's efficient self-healing properties. The coating can restore its excellent superhydrophobicity and surface morphology quickly via a simple heat treatment after suffering chemical and mechanical damage. The coating design strategy will provide inspiration for natural solar photothermal anti-icing surfaces and engineering applications.

Effect of curvature on durable ice-phobic surfaces based on buckling metallic plates

Degradation in system performance due to ice accretion on curved surfaces remains a decades-old challenge. We recently reported that Buckling Elastomer-like Anti-icing Metallic Surfaces (BEAMS) exhibit a low ice adhesion strength and extreme durability in realistic icing conditions. BEAMS consist of thin, flat metal sheets suspended on strips or dots of adhesive, and this partial confinement facilitates buckling of the metal sheet, causing ice to dislodge from the surface at a low applied force. The mechanism of ice detachment from curved BEAMS has not been investigated. Here we study how curvature affects the shear ice adhesion strength of BEAMS, using both glaze- and rime-type ice at −20 °C. For glaze, it was observed that increasing the radius of curvature increased the ice adhesion strength regardless of whether the curvature was positive or negative. For rime ice a high radius of curvature, R = 17.3 mm, was used inside an icing wind tunnel. When the compliance of the material used to suspend the metallic sheet was increased, the rime ice adhesion strength was as low as τice≈3 kPa. Further, the confinement configuration of BEAMS was studied to understand its effect on lateral torsional buckling. Lateral torsional buckling altered the radius of curvature of both the suspension material and metal sheet, initiating cracks due to the unchanged curvature of the accreted ice. Accordingly, the extremely low ice adhesion strength of BEAMS, even on curved surfaces, was due to buckling instabilities either within the thin metal plates or the suspension material. Overall, BEAMS would appear to be a durable, low-ice-adhesion candidate material even for complex and curved surface geometries such as the leading edges of aircraft wings, wind turbine blades, or power transmission lines.

Are nanohedgehogs thirsty? Toward new superhydrophobic and anti-icing carbon nanohorn-polymer hybrid surfaces

85% of the world’s polymers production is made up of thermoplastics, and among them, one can find: polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). In this study, these three polymers were applied for the first time as supports for superhydrophobic and anti-icing surfaces created using single walled carbon nanohorns (SWCNH). A facile method of thermal “feathering” was used and the obtained materials were deeply characterized using thermal (thermogravimetry, differential scanning calorimetry) and microscopic (scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, confocal microscopy) methods as well as tribological and nanoindentation tests. We show that, depending on the polymer, the process of thermal “bulk” or “surface feathering” occurs. The results supported by Hansen Solubility Parameters calculation combined with Molecular Dynamics Simulations allow to explain the stability of surfaces as well as the wetting behavior revealing that all new materials are superhydrophobic. Moreover, some of them exhibit ice-phobic properties, while droplet freezing process is well described by the dynamic growth angle model. Finally, by discussing the mechanical stability, superhydrophobic and anti-icing properties two optimal surfaces (PP + SWCNH 5 min, PE + SWCNH 10 min) are chosen. Both of them possess intermediate values of Young’s modulus and show intermediate values of static contact angle hysteresis. Since the PE-based solids show enhanced tribological performance, tests, PE + SWCNH 10 min sample emerges as the most perspective in practical hydrophobic and anti-icing applications.

Facile Fabrication of Fluorine-Free, Anti-Icing, and Multifunctional Superhydrophobic Surface on Wood Substrates.

Building superhydrophobic protective layers on the wood substrates is promising in terms of endowing them with multiple functions, including water-repellent, self-cleaning, anti-icing functions. In this study, multifunctional superhydrophobic wood was successfully fabricated by introducing SiO2 sol and superhydrophobic powder (PMHOS). The SiO2 sol was prepared using tetraethoxysilane as a precursor and ethanol was used as the dispersant. The PMHOS was synthesized using poly(methylhydrogen)siloxane (PMHS) and ethanol. As a result, the obtained superhydrophobic wood had a water contact angle (WCA) of 156° and a sliding angle (SA) of 6° at room temperature. The obtained superhydrophobic wood exhibited excellent repellency toward common liquid (milk, soy sauce, juice, and coffee). The superhydrophobic layer on the wood surface also exhibited good durability after a series of mechanical damages, including finger wiping, tape peeling, knife scratching, and sandpaper abrasion. In addition, the obtained superhydrophobic wood showed excellent anti-icing properties.

Micro-Nano-Nanowire Triple Structure-Held PDMS Superhydrophobic Surfaces for Robust Ultra-Long-Term Icephobic Performance.

Anti-icing superhydrophobic surfaces have attracted tremendous interests due to their repellency to water and extremely low ice affinity, whereas the weak durability has been the bottleneck for further applications. Surface durability is especially important in long-term exposure to low-temperature and high-humidity environments. In this study, a robust micro-nano-nanowire triple structure-held PDMS superhydrophobic surface was fabricated via a hybrid process: ultrafast-laser-prepared periodic copper microstructures were chemically oxidized, followed by modification of PDMS. The hedgehog-like surface structure was composed of microcones, densely grown nanowires, and tightly combined PDMS. The capillary force difference in micro-nanostructures drove PDMS solutions to distribute evenly, bonding fragile nanowires to form stronger composite cones. PDMS replaced the commonly used fragile fluorosilanes and protected nanowires from breaking, which endowed the surfaces with higher robustness. The ductile PDMS-nanowire composites possessed higher resiliency than brittle nanowires under a load of 1 mN. The surface kept superhydrophobic and ice-resistant after 15 linear abrasion cycles under 1.2 kPa or 60 icing-deicing cycles under -20 °C or 500 tape peeling cycles. Under a higher pressure of 6.2 kPa, the contact angle (CA) was maintained above 150° until the abrasion distance exceeded 8 m. In addition, the surface exhibited a rare spontaneously optimized performance in the icing-deicing cycles. The ice adhesion strength of the surface reached its lowest value of 12.2 kPa in the 16th cycle. Evolution of surface roughness and morphology were combined to explain its unique U-shaped performance curves, which distinguished its unique degradation process from common surfaces. Thus, this triple-scale superhydrophobic surface showed a long-term anti-icing performance with high deicing robustness and low ice adhesion strength. The proposed nanostructure-facilitated uniform distribution strategy of PDMS is promising in future design of durable superhydrophobic anti-icing surfaces.

Prolonged water freezing on a superhydrophobic micropillar polydimethylsiloxane film

Surface design is a promising approach to avoid problems with ice accretion. Here we investigated the water freezing characteristics on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film with micropillar-array structure. We fabricated a micropillar square array with the pillar diameter of 10 μm, the heigh of 20 μm, and the pitch of 50 μm, using the PDMS–PDMS pattern transfer. Water contact angle and sliding-off angle measurements revealed that the micropillar PDMS film had a superhydrophobic surface. Freezing behaviors were compared for water droplet on different surfaces including a copper plate with a micropillar PDMS film. The case of micropillar PDMS film showed prolonged freezing, and the potential of anti-icing surface design was demonstrated.

Bioinspired drag reduction surfaces via triple lithography method based on three-layer hybrid masks

Drag reduction is a significant challenge for many industries, such as ships, pipelines, aircraft, energy, and transportation. Multilayer hierarchical microstructures can inhibit the development of vortices near the wall, which is beneficial to drag reduction. However, existing methods have difficulty performing the controlled fabrication of complex multilayer hierarchical microstructure arrays. Here, a novel triple lithography method based on three-layer hybrid masks is proposed for the controlled fabrication of three-dimensional multilayer hierarchical microstructure surfaces. The capability of the proposed process is verified by the multilayer hierarchical microstructures. In the fabrication process, a special lithography sequence is designed based on the hybrid mask materials. The drag reduction ability of the multilayer hierarchical microstructures is investigated in a closed air channel measurement system. The experimental results demonstrate that the fabricated multilayer hierarchical microstructures exhibit significant drag reduction ability under certain conditions. Conceptual models based on the fluid-solid coupling interface interaction are proposed to explain the drag reduction mechanism of multilayer hierarchical microstructures. The proposed fabrication method provides a powerful means for practical engineering applications of various bioinspired functional surfaces, such as drag reduction, anti-icing, antifouling, self-cleaning, and superhydrophobic surfaces.