A General Model for the Longevity of Super-Hydrophobic Surfaces in Under-Saturated, Stationary Liquid

Abstract

We perform a numerical study of the longevity of a super-hydrophobic surface (SHS) in under-saturated, stationary liquid. We numerically solve the spatial-temporal evolution of the gas concentration in the liquid, the time-variation of mass flux of gas out of the plastron, as well as the time required for the gas in the plastron to be fully dissolved (i.e., the plastron lifetime). We find that the profiles of gas concentration at different times are self-similar, and the mass flux reduces with time (t) at a rate of 1/t0.5. In addition, we examine the impact of texture parameters, including pitch, gas fraction, texture height, and advancing contact angle, on the diffusion process. Our results show that both plastron lifetime and diffusion length increase with increasing the gas fraction or increasing the texture height and are independent of the advancing contact angle and pitch. We propose simple analytical models for plastron lifetime and diffusion length. We show that the model has a fair agreement with the experimental data reported in the literature, and can predict the longevity for SHS with various texture geometries, texture sizes, and under different degrees of under-saturations. Our models could guide the design of long-life SHS for underwater applications such as reducing skin-friction drag and preventing biofouling.