Issue 77, 2017

Dynamics of a water droplet on a hydrophobic inclined surface: influence of droplet size and surface inclination angle on droplet rolling

Abstract

An understanding of the dynamic motion of a water droplet is critical to reduce the effort required to remove dust particles from such surfaces. In line with self-cleaning applications, the wobbling and geometric variations of a rolling droplet were experimentally assessed for various droplet sizes. Furthermore, the internal fluidity of a rolling droplet was numerically predicted. The findings revealed that the rotational Bond number influenced the droplet wobbling due to adhesion force variations during rolling. Small-sized droplets, which were comparable to the capillary length, resulted in higher rotational speeds than those of larger-sized droplets. The ability to alter the rolling characteristics of droplets on inclined hydrophobic surfaces could address the limitations of self-cleaning surfaces and has implications for efficiency enhancements in solar energy devices.

Graphical abstract: Dynamics of a water droplet on a hydrophobic inclined surface: influence of droplet size and surface inclination angle on droplet rolling

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
23 Aug 2017
Accepted
12 Oct 2017
First published
17 Oct 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 48806-48818

Dynamics of a water droplet on a hydrophobic inclined surface: influence of droplet size and surface inclination angle on droplet rolling

B. S. Yilbas, A. Al-Sharafi, H. Ali and N. Al-Aqeeli, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 48806 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA09345D

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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