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Oblique impacts of water drops onto hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces: outcomes, timing, and rebound maps

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Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on water drop oblique impacts onto hydrophobic and superhydrophobic tilted surfaces, with the objective of understanding drop impact dynamics and the conditions for drop rebound on low wetting surfaces. Drop impact experiments were performed with millimetric water drops with Weber numbers in the range 25 < We < 585, using different surfaces with advancing contact angles 111° < θ A < 160° and receding contact angles 104° < θ R < 155°. The analysis of oblique impacts onto tilted surfaces led to the definition of six different impact regimes: deposition, rivulet, sliding, rolling, partial rebound, and rebound. For superhydrophobic surfaces, surface tilting generally enhanced drop rebound and shedding from the surface, either by reducing drop rebound time up to 40 % or by allowing drop rebound even when impalement occurred in the vicinity of the impact region. On hydrophobic surfaces, rebound was never observed for tilt angles higher than 45°.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Regione Lombardia for funding the project “Strumenti innovativi per il progetto di sistemi antighiaccio per l’aeronautica” (within the Framework Agreement) and Alenia Aermacchi for financial support. CA acknowledges funding by a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship, within the 7th European Community Framework Programme (ICE2, 301174). The authors also thank I. Bernagozzi and I. Malavasi (University of Bergamo), H. Chen (University of Alberta, Canada) and A. Amirfazli (University of York, Canada) for sample preparation. CA acknowledges Daniele Foresti (ETH Zurich) for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering, University of Bergamo, Viale Marconi 5, 24044, Dalmine, BG, Italy

    C. Antonini, F. Villa & M. Marengo

  2. Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, Mechanical and Process Engineering Department, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    C. Antonini

  3. School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brighton, Cockcroft Building, C221, Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 4GJ, UK

    M. Marengo

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  1. C. Antonini
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  2. F. Villa
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Correspondence to C. Antonini or M. Marengo.

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C. Antonini and F. Villa have contributed equally to this study.

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Antonini, C., Villa, F. & Marengo, M. Oblique impacts of water drops onto hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces: outcomes, timing, and rebound maps. Exp Fluids 55, 1713 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-014-1713-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-014-1713-9

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