Laminar drag reduction in surfactant-contaminated superhydrophobic channels

TL;DR

This paper develops an analytical model to predict how surfactant contamination affects drag reduction in superhydrophobic channels, providing a comprehensive guide for optimizing design in practical applications.

Contribution

It introduces a one-dimensional model capturing the interplay of Marangoni effects, diffusion, and advection, and maps out regimes for drag reduction in surfactant-contaminated superhydrophobic channels.

Findings

Multiple flow regimes identified based on parameters.

Analytical approximations for drag reduction in each regime.

Numerical simulations validate the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

While superhydrophobic surfaces (SHSs) show promise for drag reduction applications, their performance can be compromised by traces of surfactant, which generate Marangoni stresses that increase drag. This question is addressed for soluble surfactant in a three-dimensional laminar channel flow, with periodic SHSs on both walls. We assume that diffusion is sufficiently strong for cross-channel concentration gradients to be small. Exploiting a long-wave theory that accounts for a rapid transverse Marangoni-driven flow, we derive a one-dimensional model for surfactant evolution, which allows us to predict the drag reduction across the parameter space. The system exhibits multiple regimes, involving competition between Marangoni effects, bulk and interfacial diffusion, advection and shear dispersion. We map out asymptotic regions in the high-dimensional parameter space, deriving approximations of the drag reduction in each region and comparing them to numerical simulations. Our atlas of maps provides a comprehensive analytical guide for designing surfactant-contaminated channels with SHSs, to maximise the drag reduction in applications.