Experimental Study of Wall Shear Stress Modification by Surface Coating: Pressure Drop Measurements in a Rectangular Channel

Presented in this paper are experiments to test the hypothesis that drag reduction is possible over hydrophobic surfaces in the Wenzel state during laminar and turbulent flows. Quantification of surface drag reduction in rectangular channel flow over walls with specific hydrophobic or hydrophilic properties was obtained with pressure drop measurements along the channel for a range of Reynolds numbers between 350 and 5900. Several commercially available materials and coatings were chosen in order to span a range of contact angles between 30° and 135°. The results are within the bounds of the theoretical values calculated with the Colebrook equation, and do not show any reduction in wall shear stress as a function of material properties or surface chemistry. The differences between this experiment and others measuring pressure drop over hydrophobic surfaces is the macro-scale conditions and the hydrophobic surfaces being fully wetted. These experiments are further proof of the importance of a liquid-vapor interface for increasing the shear free area to produce drag reduction.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Mechanical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Dominic, Justin

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Vlachos, Pavlos P.
• Charonko, John J.

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Diller, Thomas E.

• boundary layer
• drag reduction
• hydrophobicity
• wetting

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Dc Identifier Other

etd-06102011-124812

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/76796