Haowei Hu^1,2,*, Qi Wang¹, Xinnuo Chen¹, Qin Li³, Mu Du⁴, Dong Niu^5,*

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol.22, No.4, pp. 1245-1259, 2024, DOI:10.32604/fhmt.2024.054223 - 30 August 2024

Abstract To investigate the microscopic mechanism underlying the influence of surface-chemical gradient on heat and mass recovery, a molecular dynamics model including droplet condensation and transport process has been developed to examine heat and mass recovery performance. This work aimed at identify optimal conditions for enhancing heat and mass recovery through the combination of wettability gradient and nanopore transport. For comprehensive analysis, the structure in the simulation was categorized into three distinct groups: a homogeneous structure, a small wettability gradient, and a large wettability gradient. The homogeneous surface demonstrated low efficiency in heat and mass transfer, More >

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 - 30 August 2024

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 >

Yunyun Song¹, Xu Zhang¹, Jialei Yang¹, Zhongqiang Zhang^1,*, Guanggui Cheng¹

The International Conference on Computational & Experimental Engineering and Sciences, Vol.25, No.2, pp. 1-1, 2023, DOI:10.32604/icces.2023.09916

Abstract Although floating oil with large particle sizes can easily be separated from water by membrane separation methods, tiny oil droplets with tremendously small volume force and density gradient at oil-water interfaces within water lead to barriers of oil-water separation. Consequently, tiny oil droplets remain in the water, resulting in energy waste, environmental pollution and biological health hazard. Traditional super-wetting membranes with extremely small pore sizes were easily blocked during the oil-water separation process. Inspired by the cactus and rice leaf, we developed a superhydrophobic-superoleophilic surface with conical micro-arrays to realize ultrafast adsorption of tiny oil… More >