Effect of Superhydrophobic Surface on Drag Coefficient of SD7003 Foil: A Numerical Approach

Due to low surface energy and hierarchical roughness, fluids on superhydrophobic surfaces are mobile. The slip velocity on these surfaces is formulated using Navier’s slip length. On regular surfaces, slip length is only a few nano-meters. On superhydrophobic surfaces, slip length can be as large as 500 µm. Literature studies usually make the entire surface superhydrophobic which may not be the optimum situation. To find the desirable regions, the problem should be analyzed numerically. Most of the numerical studies are for flat plates. On curved surfaces (e.g. foils), due to the adverse pressure gradient and possibility of separation, analysis is more complicated. Here, the effect of using superhydrophobic surface for a SD7003 hydrofoil is studied numerically and at different Reynolds numbers and slip lengths. The flow pattern is considered laminar, incompressible and isothermal and a hydrofoil made of aluminum with a chord length of 10cm is selected. Results of the shear stress, pressure coefficient and the drag coefficient on the typical boundary condition were compared with the case of slip boundary condition. It was found that by increasing the slip length, the drag coefficient decreases. It was also found that the effectiveness of using superhydrophobic surfaces in decreasing the drag coefficient improves at higher Reynolds numbers. By increasing the Reynolds number from 4.5×〖10〗^4 to 7.5×〖10〗^4 and at the slip length of 50 µm, the drag coefficient reduction increases from 0.7% to 7%.