Surveying the Directional Transport of Water Droplets upon Impact on Metallic Topographic Gradients

Drop impact phenomena on raw, polished, and topography-altered gradient surfaces are investigated and presented. The main aim of this study is to demonstrate that in using a one-step industrial patterning process, it is possible to obtain metal topographical wetting gradients that can produce various desired outcomes after droplet impact. The findings could be applied to improving wind or steam turbine blades. The ranges of Weber (We) and Reynolds (Re) numbers in the study are 3–300 and 650–6500, respectively. It is demonstrated that for a fixed We, the droplet transport outcomes change from bouncing-off to side-flipping to deposition depending on the impact location and the gradient strength. The effect of We in combination with the gradient strength was also considered to demonstrate droplet behavior similar to that observed on a uniform water repellent surface and on biphilic systems. In addition, full bouncing-off and directional control have been demonstrated. For the condition We = 95 ± 3, it was possible to achieve a maximum droplet recoil height of ∼6 mm and a side motion of almost 8 mm. A combination of different outcomes (e.g., splashing on one side of a droplet and passive horizontal translation on another) was observed on the studied gradients at We > 200 due to different wetting regimes across the droplet’s three-phase line.