Haowei Hu^1,2,*, Xinnuo Chen¹, Qi Wang¹, Qin Li³, Dong Niu⁴, Mu Du^5,*

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.22, No.4, pp. 1071-1085, 2024, DOI:10.32604/fhmt.2024.054218

Abstract The self-driven behavior of droplets on a functionalized surface, coupled with wetting gradient and wedge patterns, is systematically investigated using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The effects of key factors, including wedge angle, wettability, and wetting gradient, on the droplet self-driving effect is revealed from the nanoscale. Results indicate that the maximum velocity of droplets on hydrophobic wedge-shaped surfaces increases with the wedge angle, accompanied by a rapid attenuation of driving force; however, the average velocity decreases with the increased wedge angle. Conversely, droplet movement on hydrophilic wedge-shaped surfaces follows the opposite trend, particularly in terms… More >

Hongfei Ye^1,*, Chenguang Yin¹, Jian Wang¹, Yonggang Zheng¹, Hongwu Zhang¹

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.27, No.1, pp. 1-1, 2023, DOI:10.32604/icces.2023.09741

Abstract The wetting behavior is ubiquitous in natural phenomenon as well as engineering application. As an intrinsic property of solid surface, the wettability with a controllable gradient has been an attractive issue with a wide application in various fields, including microfluidic devices, self-driven transport, biotechnologies, etc. Generally, it often requires elaborate design of microstructure or its response under the electrical, thermal, optical, pH stimuli, etc. However, the relevant complex underlying mechanism makes it difficult to construct quantitative relations between the wettability and the external field for the fine design. In this work, based on the bilayer… More >