| dc.description.abstract | The interference to fluid flow over a solid surface is significantly high to such an extent
that the fluid in contact with the surface possesses a null velocity. This phenomenon is
called the no-slip condition. On the contrary, superhydrophobic surfaces possess signif icant slip velocities, hence a partial slip condition, enabling significant drag reduction
properties when in relative motion with fluids. However, making a complete object
superhydrophobic may not necessarily provide the most aerodynamic nor cost-effective
solution. A smooth flat plate of 50% slip condition was used as the first step to link
the relationship between superhydrophobic area and the drag coefficient using computa tional fluid dynamics software, OpenFOAM. A greater drag reduction was observed for
partially superhydrophobic flat plates compared to a fully superhydrophobic counterpart.
The flat plate was made superhydrophobic using five unique approaches in total, both
unilaterally and bilaterally in either direction of the flat plate. It was then found that
drag reduction did not arbitrarily depend on the total area of superhydrophobicity. Each
approach resulted in a unique drag reduction trend with increasing superhydrophobic
area. Superhydrophobising the flat plate from the trailing edge towards the leading edge,
against the flow direction, provided the best drag reduction characteristics. | en_US |
