Water droplets jumping on a surface due to hydrophobicity variation: Computational modelling approach

The droplet jumping on superhydrophobic surfaces is one of the attractive phenomena in academic and industrial research due to its various applications in engineering. The effect of the substrate hydrophobicity variation on the jumping of sub milliliter water droplets on smooth surfaces is computationally studied using a mass-springdamper scheme. It is observed that above a critical substrate hydrophobicity variation, the interface area of the droplet-substrate decreases strongly, and the droplet jumps off the surface. In addition, the behavior of the droplets during the changing of substrate hydrophobicity is explained via an analytical energy-based model to predict and estimate the physical parameters at which droplet jumping is achieved.