Experimental Study on Slip Flows in Superhydrophobic Microchannel

초소수성 마이크로 채널 내 슬립 유동의 실험적 측정

Recently, many studies concern on the slip flow and slip length, which allow liquid flow to reduce drag force in microchannel. However, until now not enough investigation is performed experimentally to understand the slip flow in the superhydrophobic microchannel exhibiting riblet structures on vertical wall. Here we investigated and compared the slip flows according to the surface characteristics; hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and superhydrophobic wettabilities. Using the micro-PIV, velocity profiles can be obtained in the glass (hydrophilic), PDMS (hydrophobic), and micro-structured PDMS (superhydrophobic) microchannels. For both PDMS and superhydrophobic PDMS microchannels, we observed the slip effects showing the microscale slip lengths. Due to the micro-riblet, there are two distinctive flow characteristics on the riblet surface and the liquid meniscus in the valleys.