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Jet impingement on the underside of a superhydrophobic surface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2022

Roberto M. de la Cruz
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, TU Delft, Delft, 2629 HS, Netherlands
Simo A. Mäkiharju*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
*
Email address for correspondence: makiharju@berkeley.edu

Abstract

Water patch topology and momentum loss resulting from a jet impacting on the underside of a flat plate with varied hydrophobicity were studied. The jet's Reynolds and Froude numbers ranged from 3700 to 31 000, and from 1 to 23, respectively. Hence effects of gravity were expected to be non-negligible, and data suggest that this is the case for hydrophobic surfaces. The interplay of gravity, surface tension, inertia and viscosity resulted in two distinct behaviours. On hydrophilic surfaces, water spread uniformly. Friction reduced momentum, and led to accumulation at the edges of the patch until gravity overcame surface tension and produced droplets. On hydrophobic surfaces, two rims formed, enclosing a thin laminar film. The patch shape was mostly determined by the balance of kinetic and surface energy. Dewetting occurred in most cases when the two rims merged, but for a narrow parameter, range water detached soon after impact and formed a type of skewed water bell. The transition in detachment topology was predicted reasonably by a simple model considering whether an attached or detached rim minimizes energy. Due to promotion of dewetting by gravity, the water patch area decreased compared to that reported in previous studies, which considered jet impingement on vertical surfaces and tops of horizontal surfaces. Owing to the application that motivated this study, the streamwise force on the plate was also measured. On hydrophobic surfaces the reduction in force correlated with the reduction in water patch area. Water patch area and momentum loss were both found to scale best with the contact-angle-modified Weber number.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Figure 0

Figure 1. (a) Conceptual representation of the wetting event of Peifer et al. (2020), with a slug of water rising up through the air layer and impacting the superhydrophobic surface (SHS). (b) The simplified repeatable experiment with a jet at an oblique angle impinging on the underside of a flat plate. Here, $v$, $u$ and $U$ are the vertical, horizontal and scalar water jet velocities, respectively. Gravity acts downwards, normal to the surface.

Figure 1

Figure 2. The ascending jet impact set-up. The $y$-axis on the coordinate system points ‘out’ of the paper to form a right-handed coordinate system. The parameters $U (= 4\dot {m} / \rho {\rm \pi}d^{2})$, $d$, $\alpha$, $g$, $\rho$ and $\dot {m}$ represent the average jet velocity, pipe diameter, initial jet angle, gravitational acceleration, water density and mass flow rate, respectively.

Figure 2

Table 1. Surface properties, where $\pm$ indicates one standard deviation of the measurements, and $R_a$ and $k^{+}$ are the arithmetic mean and dimensionless roughness, respectively.

Figure 3

Figure 3. Pictures of droplets taken for the contact angle measurement. Surfaces: (a) A1 Glass ($45 \pm 8^{\circ }$); (b) A2 NeverWet ($101 \pm 3^{\circ }$); (c) A4 NaisolSHBC ($142 \pm 4^{\circ }$); (d) A5 Cytonix800M ($150 \pm 2^{\circ }$).

Figure 4

Table 2. Parameter ranges explored and water properties at experimental conditions. Note that the jet angle, $\alpha$, is defined relative to the horizontal plane.

Figure 5

Table 3. Ranges of the relevant non-dimensional parameters derived in Appendix C. Note that albeit Froude number is not an independent group as it is just a combination of Weber and Bond numbers, its range is listed here for clarity.

Figure 6

Figure 4. Top view (upper part of each panel) and side view (bottom of each panel) for different jet momentums and surface hydrophobicities. Pipe angle, $\alpha$, and diameter, $d$, are constants equal to $35^{\circ }$ and 9.3 mm, respectively. Flow rate, $Q$, from top to bottom row is 2.12, 4.25, 6.4 and 8.52 ${\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$. The Reynolds numbers are therefore $5.54 \times 10^{3}$, $1.11 \times 10^{4}$, $1.67 \times 10^{4}$, $2.22 \times 10^{4}$, and the Weber numbers are 45, 181, 411, 728. Surfaces and their contact angles from left to right are: A1 (45$^{\circ }$), A2 (101$^{\circ }$), A4 (142$^{\circ }$) and A5 (150$^{\circ }$). The two highest flow rates on the hydrophilic plate, A1, were not reported as the water spread beyond the plate's edges.

Figure 7

Figure 5. Schematic top view of topology. Main variables are: $b(x)$, water patch width; $L$, water patch length; $A$, water patch (wet) area; $\psi$, angle from the symmetry line; $r(\psi )$, radial coordinate of the water patch edge. Note that all lengths and areas include rims.

Figure 8

Figure 6. Jet impingement with $Q= 4.8\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$, $d= 9.3\,{\rm mm}$ and $\alpha =45^{\circ }$ ($\textit{Re} = 1.25 \times 10^{4}$, $\textit {We} = 231$). (a) Top view of patch on a hydrophobic surface (A2). Note the two thick perturbed (hence opaque) rims around a thin laminar (clear) region in the middle. (b) Top view of the patch on a hydrophilic surface (A1). The rims are absent, and water accumulates at the edges of the wetted spot from where drops detach (with radial accumulation location being time dependent). Note also the much larger wetted area on the hydrophilic surface. (c) Sketches of the approximated cross-section views at the lines indicated in (a,b); $\theta \approx \theta _{static}$ is the contact angle at the edge of the water patch.

Figure 9

Figure 7. Map of the experimental conditions and the critical rim diameter (see (A3)) above which the rim is expected to not be able to remain attached. Symbols indicate experimental observations: empty symbols indicate cases where the rims remained attached until they merged or water was stopped by viscosity and pooled on the edges; filled markers indicate that detachment was observed before rims merged. The dashed line (see (A6)) shows the critical diameter for droplets.

Figure 10

Figure 8. (a) Detachment from a hydrophilic surface (A1); $Q= 2.46\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$, $d= 6.1$ mm and $\alpha =35\,^{\circ }$ ($\textit {Re} = 9.75 \times 10^{3}$, $\textit {We} = 212$). (b) Continuous rim/edge and film detachment on the superhydrophobic surface (A5); $Q= 4.62\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$, $d= 9.3$ mm and $\alpha =45\,^{\circ }$ ($\textit {Re} = 1.21 \times 10^{4}$, $\textit {We} = 214$).

Figure 11

Figure 9. Jet-width-normalized maximum water patch width versus contact-angle-modified vertical-velocity Weber number $We_{\theta z}$. Lines show predictions of (3.1) for lowest and highest jet angle $\alpha$.

Figure 12

Figure 10. Comparison of measured patch width to width of radial spreading zone predicted by (3.3) based on model by Wang et al. (2013).

Figure 13

Figure 11. Jet-width-diameter normalized water patch length plotted against the square root of the contact-angle-modified horizontal-velocity Weber number, $We_{\theta x}$.

Figure 14

Figure 12. Normalized water patch area plotted against the square root of the product of contact-angle-modified Weber numbers $(We_{\theta i}=\rho u^{2}_{i}d/\sigma(1-\cos \theta))$.

Figure 15

Figure 13. Measured horizontal force on the plate versus horizontal momentum of the incoming jet; the dashed line represents (3.6), where these are equal and all horizontal momentum is lost due to viscous friction. Data below the line represent cases where only a fraction of the momentum was lost.

Figure 16

Figure 14. (a) ‘Rebound’ off the superhydrophobic plate (A5); $Q= 2.58\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$, $d= 6.1$ mm and $\alpha =25\,^{\circ }$. (b) Water departing vertically from a hydrophilic plate (A1); $Q= 1.98\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$, $d= 6.3$ mm and $\alpha =25$ $^{\circ }$. The jet is at an oblique angle from the right.

Figure 17

Figure 15. Frictional drag coefficient $C_F$ based on measured horizontal force $F_x$ and patch area $A$, versus $Re_L$. The dashed and dash-dot lines represent drag from turbulent and laminar approximations to the boundary layer friction coefficient, if we simplify the patch to be rectangular spanwise uniform. The solid line accounts for elliptical shape for a laminar boundary layer.

Figure 18

Table 4. Range of surface parameters of the present and previous studies.

Figure 19

Table 5. Range of flow parameters of the present and previous studies.

Figure 20

Figure 16. Water patch shape comparison between current paper and equations found to fit results of: Kibar (2018), see (4.4); Wang et al. (2013), see (3.2) and (4.2); and Kate et al. (2007), see (4.1). Here, $Q= 4.8\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$, $d= 9.3$ mm, $\theta = 101^{\circ }$ and $\alpha =45^{\circ }$ ($\textit {Re} = 1.25 \times 10^{4}$, $\textit {We} = 231$).

Figure 21

Figure 17. Mean length ratio for Kibar (2018), Wang et al. (2013) (g for gravity included, (4.2), and ng for no gravity, (3.2)) and Kate et al. (2007) with respect to this paper. Each bar value is the average of the ratio of all the tests done of such surface (51 for A1 Glass, 68 for A2 NeverWet, 35 for A4 NaisolSHBC, and 64 for A5 Cytonix800M). The error bars represent one standard deviation.

Figure 22

Figure 18. Different water patch topologies and flow patterns reported depending on plate orientation and contact angle. (a) Hydraulic jumps as seen in Kate et al. (2007). (b) Braiding as seen in Mertens, Putkaradze & Vorobieff (2005), and reflections for microjets as in Celestini et al. (2010). (c) Vertical rivulet flow (Wilson et al.2012), gravity and dry patch flow (Wang et al.2013). (d) Braiding and reflection of jet as per Kibar et al. (2010). (e) Underside waterbells for limited range of flow conditions of Button et al. (2010), and droplet detachment as seen both in Button et al. (2010) and in the present study on surface A1. (f) Reflection before rims join, forming a skewed water bell, and reflection when rims merge, as seen in the present study on surfaces A2, A4 and A5.

Figure 23

Figure 19. Water patch area on rough (B2) and smooth (B1) surfaces normalized by jet cross-section plotted against the square of the product of the contact-angle-modified Weber numbers.

Figure 24

Figure 20. Top view of the water patch on (a) smooth surface (B1), and (b) rough surface (B2). From top to bottom, the flow rates are 7.71, 5.78 and $3.86\,{\rm l}\,{\rm min}^{-1}$ ($\textit {Re} = 2.01 \times 10^{4}$, $\textit {We} = 596$; $\textit {Re} = 1.51 \times 10^{4}$, $\textit {We} = 335$; $\textit {Re} = 1.01 \times 10^{4}$, $\textit {We} = 149$). The pipe diameter ($d$) was 9.3 mm, and the incidence angle ($\alpha$) was $25^{\circ }$.

Figure 25

Figure 21. Rims cross-section sketch used for energy balance model for attached (a) versus detached (b) rims. Here, $\theta$, $r_A$, $r_D$ and $c$ represent the contact angle, attached drop radius, detached drop radius and centroid distance to the surface, respectively. The $A$ terms represent different areas per unit length according to table 6.

Figure 26

Table 6. Areas and volumes per unit length, and centroids, of the attached and detached cylinder cross-sections as functions of contact angle, $\theta$, and their radii, $r_A$ and $r_D$. The two radii are related by mass conservation as $V^{A} = V^{D}$, $r_A^{2}={2 {\rm \pi}r_D^{2} }/({2\theta - \sin 2\theta })$.

Figure 27

Figure 22. Sketch of control volume (red) used for derivation of a simplified model for the water patch width. Side view shown in panel (b), and cross-section at indicated plane in (a). Note that figure 6(c) shows a more realistic cross-section, and the rectangular approximation is adopted only for the present analysis. With this first approximation, the water patch shape is considered to be a $b \times t$ rectangle, while in actuality the cross-section consists of rims connected by a thinner film.

Figure 28

Table 7. Set of four dependent and six independent groups resulting from the dimensional analysis. Alternative groups can be derived from these, and of particular interest in the present study is the contact-angle-modified Weber number.

Figure 29

Table 8. Raw data for the superhydrohphobic ‘A’ surfaces.