DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/9SWE-7N54
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-2023-3165
Defense Date
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering
First Advisor
Dr. Reza Mohammadi
Abstract
This study proposes a method to enhance the anti-icing capabilities of superhydrophobic surfaces by utilizing vibration to further reduce contact time of an impacting droplet in addition to keeping the droplet in the Cassie-Baxter regime, where surface adhesion is lower than the opposing Wenzel regime. We tested this with two methods: by investigating the effects of vibration normal to the plane of a superhydrophobic surface being impacted by water droplets in a room temperature environment, with the surface horizontal in a room temperature environment and tiled in a subzero degree environment. The amplitude and frequency of the vibration were varied in our experiments. Our results show that the mean contact time of a 10µL droplet consistently decreased linearly as the vibration frequency increased, though the standard deviations drastically increased. The ice accretion in the second phase of the testing also had significant variance, which obfuscated any reliable trend from the introduction of vibration.
Rights
© Christian Fergusson
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
8-10-2018