Effects of hydrophobic surface on skin-friction drag

Effects of hydrophobic surface on skin-friction drag are investigated through direct numerical simulations of a turbulent channel flow. Hydrophobic surface is represented by a slip-boundary condition on the surface. When a slip-boundary condition is used in the streamwise direction, the skin-friction drag decreases and turbulence intensities and turbulence structures, near-wall streamwise vortices in particular, are significantly weakened. When a slip-boundary condition is used in the spanwise direction, on the other hand, the drag is increased. It is found that near-wall turbulence structures are modified differently, resulting in drag increase. It is also found that the slip length must be greater than a certain value in order to have a noticeable effect on turbulence. An important implication of the present finding is that drag reduction in turbulent boundary layers is unlikely with hydrophobic surface with its slip length on the order of a submicron scale. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.