Drop Dynamics on under-liquid Surfaces: Discovery and Development

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A latest innovation at the Micro and Nano-scale Transport Laboratory (MNT Lab), University of Alberta, under the leadership of the applicant, which allows depositing drop of a given liquid on a substrate placed inside another liquid, thereby making substrate independent “under-liquid” drop deposition feasible. This timely discovery has propelled the applicant to venture into a very new area of discovery research and development, which can explain different natural wetting phenomena, including those that govern the survival of marine ecosystem under different environmental stresses. The first part of the research program would focus on behavior of Newtonian liquid drops descending with negligible impact speed on the under-liquid surfaces. The second part of the research would focus on the case where the Newtonian drop impacts the under-liquid substrate with a given impact speed and the resulting dynamics will be dictated by the interplay of the viscosities of the two liquids (drop and surrounding), and the impact velocity. The third part of the research would address the above two phenomena for the case of non-Newtonian or viscoelastic drop in a similar liquid. The final component of the research program would be towards the development of “under-water” superoleophobic surfaces. The proposed research program will aim to open a new window of understanding of the capillarity and wetting dynamics on solids placed inside a liquid through both experimental and advanced theoretical studies. Presence of a surrounding viscous medium would alter the classical description of wetting and capillarity, and the proposed research would aim to address the relevant fundamental issues. Equally importantly, the proposed research would be indispensable for applications like mitigation of effects of disasters like oil-spill on marine species (e.g., recent Gulf oil spill), reducing impact on aquatic species from energy exploration (e.g., impact of tailings from oilsands activities on fish), development of efficient under-water or sea-faring vehicles with antifouling properties, etc. The research program aims to train a large number of graduate students and senior undergraduate students with a goal to create a trained workforce based on seamless integration of fundamental science with applied research in engineering. The novel results and outcomes of the research program will be disseminated through high quality publications and will provide the research community with much needed better understanding of “under-water” oil repellent (superoleophobic) surfaces. This proposed comprehensive research program will make the Province of Alberta and Canada one of the leaders in understanding environmental impact of oil spills, oilsands tailings, etc. and will propel the applicant’s research group as one of the scientific leaders in the wetting community.