In the area of drop surface interactions there are several lines of work in our group (see below). At SEiL we use a combination of experimental, analytical, and numerical tools to examine the areas below:
- Icing of structure, e.g. airframe, and wind turbine
- Fast transfer of liquids between surfaces with application to printing technology
- Drop impact onto surfaces with applications to printing, spray cooling, coating, application of friction modifiers, fluidized beds, etc.
- Fabrication of superhydrophobic and repellent surfaces and formulation of related coatings
- Magnitic drop behavior
- The group also has experience in conducting scientific studies in microgravity regarding the wetting of surfaces
(a first study of its kind)
The first experiment deals with the effect of the electrostatic field on surface tension and contact angles of liquids and micro gravity. This experiment is done using parabolic flights which are done to simulate microgravity and observe the effects of the liquid drops and bubbles in an electric field.
The second experiment deals with the role of gravity on line tension. In this experiment a drop in microgravity and images are taken of the drop for subsequent analysis on the ground.
The challenge of these experiments was coming up with a good experimental setup. The experimental setup needed to be reliable enough that the analysis of the results could be used as future building blocks for other project in the same line of research.