Turbulent flow over wetted and non-wetted superhydrophobic counterparts with random structure

The turbulent structure of a channel flow over a non-wetted superhydrophobic (SHO) surface is experimentally investigated at Re = 9600 (based on channel width) at the region of y(+) > 10 within the buffer and logarithmic layers. The SHO surface has a random pattern produced by spray coating and is compared with a wetted counterpart and also a smooth surface. Two planar particle image velocimetry measurements are carried out in the streamwise/spanwise and streamwise/wall-normal planes. The vector fields are obtained from both ensemble averaging and individual cross-correlations of double-frame images. The results showed a small increase (similar to 5%) of the mean velocity profile at y(+) = 10 over the non-wetted surface in comparison with the wetted and the smooth surfaces. Up to 15% reduction of normal and shear Reynolds stresses is observed in the inner layer over the non-wetted SHO surface. The wetted SHO counterpart demonstrates no effect on the mean velocity and Reynolds stresses in comparison with the smooth surface. The result confirms the comment of Gad-el-Hak [Experimental study of skin friction drag reduction on superhydrophobic flat plates in high Reynolds number boundary layer flow, Phys. Fluids 25, 025103 (2013)] that the wetted SHO is hydrodynamically smooth if the surface pores are smaller than the viscous sublayer thickness. A noticeable suppression of the sweep and ejection events, increase of the spanwise spacing of the low and high speed streaks, and attenuation of vortical structures are observed over the non-wetted SHO. These indicate attenuation of the turbulence regeneration cycle due to the slip boundary condition over the non-wetted SHO surfaces with random texture. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.