title: Underwater drag-reducing effect of superhydrophobic submarine model.
abstract: To address the debates on whether superhydrophobic coatings can reduce fluid drag for underwater motions, we have achieved an underwater drag-reducing effect of large superhydrophobic submarine models with a feature size of 3.5 cm × 3.7 cm × 33.0 cm through sailing experiments of submarine models, modified with and without superhydrophobic surface under similar power supply and experimental conditions. The drag reduction rate reached as high as 15%. The fabrication of superhydrophobic coatings on a large area of submarine model surfaces was realized by immobilizing hydrophobic copper particles onto a precross-linked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) surface. The pre-cross-linking time was optimized at 20 min to obtain good superhydrophobicity for the underwater drag reduction effect by investigating the effect of pre-cross-linking on surface wettability and water adhesive property. We do believe that superhydrophobic coatings may provide a promising application in the field of drag-reducing of vehicle motions on or under the water surface.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of the Ministry of Education and ‡Institute of Advanced Marine Materials, Harbin Engineering University , Harbin 150001, PR China.
authors.forename: Songsong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Shan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Shihui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Lianhe
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wei
mesh_terms: D003300:Copper / Q000737:chemistry; D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes / Q000737:chemistry; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D004129:Dimethylpolysiloxanes; D014867:Water; C013830:baysilon; D003300:Copper