Viscous Droplet Impact on Nonwettable Textured Surfaces

Viscous droplet impact on nonwettable surfaces with complex geometry is of technological importance, but the fundamental understanding of the dynamics is not entirely understood yet. In this work, liquid drops with various viscosities and impact velocities were investigated, and their behavior was correlated with contact time upon impinging nonwettable flat and textured surfaces. It was shown that in the inertial-capillary regime, the contact time between the droplet and a flat surface is independent of impact velocity, whereas for the viscous-capillary regime, it increases with impact velocity. Drops impacting on nonwettable surfaces with single and multiple macroscopic ridges generally leave the surface at a reduced contact time, compared to flat surfaces. The incorporation of a single macrotexture results in a steplike reduction in the contact time because the impacting drop reaches the maximum spreading diameter, a condition that must happen when the capillary number is below unity.