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Benji Aleman
Physics

Heiner Linke, Mentor

A Vapor Flow Model for Self-propelled Liquid Droplets on Ratchet-like Surfaces

Film boiling liquid droplets on spatially asymmetric surfaces exhibit preferential motion that obeys a first-order drag equation. A physical model for this self-propelled motion is presented here that accounts for the driving force and drag terms of the drag equation; the model employs flow of film boiling generated vapor as the principle mechanism for motion. We compare the results to experiment and find good agreement across a wide range of droplet volumes and liquid types.