Simple, Low-cost Method to Fabricate Drag-reducing Coatings on a Macroscopic Model Ship

A low-cost method was used to fabricate superhydrophobic coatings on a macroscopic model ship and the drag-reducing effect was investigated at both low and high speed. Hierarchical structures of the superhydrophobic copper coatings were characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and X-ray diffraction(XRD). Drag coefficient tests on surfaces with different wettability(superhydrophilic, hydrophilic, hydrophobic and superhydrophobic surfaces) showed that the as-prepared superhydrophobic surface exhibited a high remarkable drag reduction of 81% at a low speed of 1 mm/s. In the drag-reducing tests with model ship, the superhydrophobic coatings also exhibited around 16% drag reduction at a velocity of 0.3 m/s.