Wrinkled surfaces shed water to improve dry performance

By adding a subtle, wrinkle-like texture Boston University’s James C. Bird and collaborators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology created surfaces that appear to shed drops faster than any previously engineered material. The team have reported their findings in Nature.

‘We’ve demonstrated that we can use surface texture to reshape a drop as it recoils in such a way that the overall contact time is significantly reduced,’ said Bird, the paper’s lead author, who directs the Interfacial Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at Boston University. ‘The upshot is that the surface stays drier longer if this contact time is reduced, which has the potential to be useful for a variety of applications.’

Such surfaces could improve the performance of systems including steam turbines or aircraft wings and help cold surfaces resist icing by shedding liquid drops before they freeze.

According to a statement, adding tiny ridges to a surface alters the way water drops react when they strike and causes them to bounce off quicker.