Effects of hysteresis of static contact angle (HSCA) and boundary slip on the hydrodynamics of water striders

It is known that contact lines keep relatively still on solids until static contact angles exceed an interval of hysteresis of static contact angle (HSCA), and contact angles keep changing as contact lines relatively slide on the solid. Here, the effects of HSCA and boundary slip were first distinguished on the micro-curvature force (MCF) on the seta. Hence, the total MCF is partitioned into static and dynamic MCFs correspondingly. The static MCF was found proportional to the HSCA and related with the asymmetry of the micro-meniscus near the seta. The dynamic MCF, exerting on the relatively sliding contact line, is aroused by the boundary slip. Based on the Blake-Haynes mechanism, the dynamic MCF was proved important for water walking insects with legs slower than the minimum wave speed . As insects brush the water by laterally swinging legs backwards, setae on the front side of the leg are pulled and the ones on the back side are pushed to cooperatively propel bodies forward. If they pierce the water surface by vertically swinging legs downwards, setae on the upside of the legs are pulled, and the ones on the downside are pushed to cooperatively obtain a jumping force. Based on the dependency between the slip length and shear rate, the dynamic MCF was found correlated with the leg speed U, as , where and are determined by the dimple depth. Discrete points on this curve could give fitted relations as (Suter et al., J. Exp. Biol. 200, 2523-2538, 1997). Finally, the axial torque on the inclined and partially submerged seta was found determined by the surface tension, contact angle, HSCA, seta width, and tilt angle. The torque direction coincides with the orientation of the spiral grooves of the seta, which encourages us to surmise it is a mechanical incentive for the formation of the spiral morphology of the setae of water striders.

Comparative study of two lattice Boltzmann multiphase models for simulating wetting phenomena: implementing static contact angles based on the geometric formulation

Wetting phenomena are widespread in nature and industrial applications. In general, systems concerning wetting phenomena are typical multicomponent/multiphase complex fluid systems. Simulating the behavior of such systems is important to both scientific research and practical applications. It is challenging due to the complexity of the phenomena and difficulties in choosing an appropriate numerical method. To provide some detailed guidelines for selecting a suitable multiphase lattice Boltzmann model, two kinds of lattice Boltzmann multiphase models, the modified S-C model and the H-C-Z model, are used in this paper to investigate the static contact angle on solid surfaces with different wettability combined with the geometric formulation(Ding, H. and Spelt, P.D. M. Wetting condition in diffuse interface simulations of contact line motion. Physical Review E, 75(4), 046708(2007)). The specific characteristics and computational performance of these two lattice Boltzmann method(LBM) multiphase models are analyzed including relationship between surface tension and the control parameters, the achievable range of the static contact angle, the maximum magnitude of the spurious currents(MMSC), and most importantly, the convergence rate of the two models on simulating the static contact angle. The results show that a wide range of static contact angles from wetting to non-wetting can be realized for both models. MMSC mainly depends on the surface tension. With the numerical parameters used in this work, the maximum magnitudes of the spurious currents of the two models are on the same order of magnitude. MMSC of the S-C model is universally larger than that of the H-C-Z model. The convergence rate of the S-C model is much faster than that of the H-C-Z model. The major foci in this work are the frequently-omitted important details in simulating wetting phenomena. Thus, the major findings in this work can provide suggestions for simulating wetting phenomena with LBM multiphase models along with the geometric formulation.

Improvement of surface hydrophobicity on silicone rubber modified by CF_4 radio frequency capacitively coupled plasma

In order to improve the surface hydrophobicity, silicone rubber （SIR） samples were exposed to CF4 radio frequency （RF） capacitively coupled plasma （CCP）. Attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared （ATR-FTIR） spectrum and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS） were used to observe the variation of the functional groups of the modified SIR. Static contact angle （SCA） was employed to estimate the change of hydrophobicity of the modified SIR. The surface energy of SIR is reduced largely from 27.37 mJ/m^2 of original SIR sample to 2.94 mJ/m^2 of SIR sample treated by CF4 CCP modification at RF power of 200 W for a treatment time of 5 rnin. According to the XPS, ATR-FTIR and surface energy analysis, it is suggested that the improvement of hydrophobicity on the modified SIR surface is mainly ascribed to the decrease of surface energy, which is caused by the cooperation of the fluosilicic structure of Si--F or Si--F2 and the fluoric groups of C--CFn induced by the methyl replacement reaction and residual methyl groups of SIR surface.

Superhydrophobic coating on heat-resistant steel surface fabricated by a facile method

Industrial application of superhydrophobic surfaces is often hindered by complicated process and sophisticated machines. A facile wet etching method （sandblast, HCl and sandblast/HCl） with vapor deposition of PFDS （1H, 1H, 2H, 2H- perfluorodecyltriethoxysilane） was applied to fabricate superhydrophobic surface of heat-resistant steel used for vane. The coating component, surface morphology and surface roughness parameters of sample were observed by attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Static water contact angle （WCA） of samples with and without PFDS coating was measured by contact angle goniometer. The results showed that WCA values of polished, sandblast, HCl and sandblast/HCl-etched samples are 98°, 97°, 100° and 101°, respectively, and increase to 112°, 148°, 151 ° and 154v after vapor deposition of PFDS. The sandblast/HCl-etched sample with PFDS coating shows higher superhydrophobicity because of very large surface roughness and lotus protrusionlike structure. The superhydrophobicity of this fabricated surface has no obvious change after 38 cycles of the film adhesion test, indicating excellent durability.