Скачать или смотреть Physical Review Journal Club: Grooves Spacing Govern Water Retention During Condensation

Condensation on vertical surfaces typically leads to fluid retention: on smooth surfaces, droplets grow, coalesce, and eventually slide, limiting the efficiency of heat exchangers and water harvesters. Adding grooves to the surface changes this; spacing can modify water retention and drainage.

Using a systematic experimental study to quantify liquid retention on substrates patterned with parallel vertical grooves, the authors show that groove spacing governs the transition between droplet shedding and capillary drainage, identifying two distinct regimes separated by the droplet detachment radius.

At large spacings, grooves act as passive reservoirs, increasing retention. Narrow spacings trigger drainage that limits droplet growth and reduces retention below that of smooth surfaces. Simple asymptotic models capture this and provide a clear rule for tailoring condensation-retention systems in practical applications.

Read ahead: https://journals.aps.org/prfluids/abs...