OPTIMIZATION OF PATTERNED SURFACES FOR IMPROVED SUPERHYDROPHOBICITY THROUGH COST-EFFECTIVE LARGE-SCALE COMPUTATIONS

The pattern design of superhydrophobic surfaces can be significantly aided by computations that predict the Cassie–Baxter (CB) to Wenzel (W) transition, which is responsible for the break-down of superhydrophobic behavior. We present a computational framework for the optimization of patterned surfaces based on the energy barriers of the CB–W transitions which comprises the following elements: (a) design of structured surface patterns, for example, arrays of pillars, with parameterized geometric features such as size, pitch, slope, and roundness. (b) Computation of the wetting states with a modified Young–Laplace equation that facilitates the introduction of solid/liquid interactions for complex surface patterns and has significantly lower computational cost than other commonly used methods, such as the volume-of-fluid, phase-field, and so forth. (c) Incorporation of the modified Young–Laplace in the simplified string method, allowing the calculation of the minimum energy paths of wetting transitions which...