UCLA

Despite the confirmation of slip flows and successful drag reduction (DR) in small-scaled laminar flows, the full impact of superhydrophobic (SHPo) DR remained questionable because of the sporadic and inconsistent experimental results in turbulent flows. Here we report a systematic set of bias-free reduction data obtained by measuring the skin-friction drags on a SHPo surface and a smooth surface at the same time and location in a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flow. Each monolithic sample consists of a SHPo surface and a smooth surface suspended by flexure springs, all carved out from a 2.7 × 2.7 mm2 silicon chip by photolithographic microfabrication. The flow tests allow continuous monitoring of the plastron on the SHPo surfaces, so that the DR data are genuine and consistent. A family of SHPo samples with precise profiles reveals the effects of grating parameters on turbulent DR, which was measured to be as much as ∼75.