Fast droplet bouncing induced by asymmetric spreading on concave superhydrophobic surfaces

A droplet can bounce in a short contact time after impacting on superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs), which is of benefit to the applications like anti-icing, anti-frosting and self-cleaning. In this study, we numerically investigate the fast droplet bouncing induced by asymmetric spreading on the concave SHS with a trapezoidal cross-section and focus on the droplet morphology evolution and contact time variation. A preferential transport at the both sides of the droplet from the inclined part to the flat part will occur because of the concave structure feature. The droplet will exhibit asymmetric spreading behavior. Moreover, the effects of structure parameters and impact velocity on the droplet contact time are explored. Within this concave structure, the droplet contact time is less influenced by the impact velocity and more influenced by the structural parameters. The presence of the tangential momentum can enhance the droplet asymmetric spreading, but it is not always beneficial to the droplet contact time reduction. Therefore, there will be an optimal structure to achieve the minimum droplet contact time. A concave SHS structure with the structure width w = 1–1.2r and the inclination angle of 45° is a more desirable choice, which is expected to reduce the droplet contact time by 40~45%.