Controlling Liquid Wetting of Textured Surfaces using Ultrasound

许多常见制造工艺的成功实施依赖于控制流体和液体何时、何地以及如何润湿固体。 这包括喷漆、粘合、清洁、焊接和钎焊等工艺。 这种控制液体是否以及何时润湿表面的能力对于自清洁和耐污表面也很重要。 这样的表面可以在各种应用中提供重要的技术和经济优势，例如，通过降低设备和建筑物（例如海军舰艇）的维护和清洁成本，通过防止太阳能电池在室外的表面上的雾和污垢积累来提高太阳能电池的效率，以及降低物体在液体中移动的摩擦。该项目研究如何高频振动，即，超声波可用于基于表面纹理的尺寸尺度与振动频率之间的关系来改变液体在表面上的润湿状态。 纹理和应用振动的组合将使新的控制在哪里和何时液体润湿表面或从它de-wet。潜在的应用包括控制键合位置，促进分离的键合组件回收，并提高液体润湿粉末。 研究工作将与研究生和本科生的教育相结合。 该项目还将用于通过振动和声学方面的新教育活动加强与当地K-12学校的外联计划。纹理表面（具有表面粗糙度的表面）可以在多种润湿状态下保持稳定。 当流体或液体渗透到纹理的凹处（Wenzel状态）和当流体停留在纹理的峰的顶部（Cassie状态）时，两个极端条件发生。 Wenzel态由于较大的接触面积而具有更强的粘附力。 对于每种流体/基质组合，一种状态通常具有较低的能量，但是为了过渡到较低能量的润湿状态，必须克服能量势垒。 先前的工作已经证明，可以通过以其特征频率振动液滴来实现转变。 然而，这在许多应用中是不切实际的，因为每个液滴具有不同的振动频率。 该项目将使用表面结构特征的频率，以便他们可以对任意大小的液滴进行工作。 具体而言，该项目将确定不同频率下所需的能量，比较不同振动模式的有效性，并评估不对称振动对流体润湿的影响。 这些目标将通过两个实验测量的压力，以移动的润湿前的液体在图案化的表面和受到振动的接触线的数值模拟来实现。

Successful implementation of many common manufacturing processes rely on controlling when, where, and how fluids and liquids wet a solid. This includes processes like painting, bonding, cleaning, soldering,and brazing. This ability to control if and when a liquid wets a surface is also of importance in self-cleaning and stain resistant surfaces. Such surfaces can provide important technological and economic advantages in a variety of applications by, for example, reducing maintenance and cleaning costs of equipment and buildings such as naval ships, improving efficiency of solar cells by preventing haze and dirt buildup on their surfaces outdoors, and lowering the friction of objects moving through a liquid. This project examines how high frequency vibrations, i.e., ultrasound, can be used to change the wetting state of a liquid on a surface based on the relationship between the size scale of the surface texture and the vibration frequency. The combination of texture and applied vibration will enable new control over where and when a liquid wets a surface or de-wets from it. Potential applications include controlling bonding locations, facilitating separation of bonded components for recycling, and improving the wetting of powders by liquids. The research efforts will be integrated with the education of both graduate and undergraduate students. The project will also be used to enhance outreach programs with local K-12 schools through new educational activities on vibration and acoustics. Textured surfaces (ones with surface roughness) can be stable in multiple wetting states. The two extreme conditions occur when a fluid or liquid penetrates into the recesses of the texture (Wenzel state) and when the fluid rests on top of the peaks of the texture (Cassie state). The Wenzel state has much stronger adhesion due to the larger contact area. For each fluid/substrate combination, one state will typically have lower energy, but there is an energy barrier that must be overcome in order to transition to the lower energy wetting states. Prior work has demonstrated that transitions can be achieved by vibrating a droplet at its characteristic frequency. However, this is impractical in many applications because every droplet has different vibration frequencies. This project will use frequencies that are characteristic of the surface structure so that they can work on droplets of arbitrary sizes. Specifically, the project will identify the energy required at different frequencies, compare the effectiveness of different vibrational modes, and evaluate the impact of asymmetric vibrations on the fluid wetting. These objectives will be accomplished by both experimental measurements of the pressure to move the wetting front of a liquid on a patterned surface and numerical modeling of the contact lines subjected to vibration.