Maintenance of air layer and drag reduction on superhydrophobic surface

Hydrophobic surface for drag reduction on marine vehicles and structures has been proposed for many years. However, the drag reduction effect has been found to be unstable under high flow speed/pressure conditions because of the destruction of air-water interface. In this paper, an air layer was maintained experimentally by continuous air injection on hydrophobic surfaces. Good hydrophobicity was found to benefit the spread of air bubbles and...