Research Projects

Condensation of water vapor on a textured surface is encountered in applications such as water harvesting while condensation of metallic vapor is seen in specialized distillation systems. Textured surfaces are required to be hydrophobic to encourage droplet formation and assist drainage. Surface texturing is often achieved by uniformly applied chemical coatings on a laboratory scale but scaling up the process is a challenge. The goal of the study is to improve the predictability of interfacial phenomena in an inherently three dimensional setting via carefully conducted experiments juxtaposed against mesoscale simulation. Also, the details originating from a component scale of a patterned surface will be integrated with a large-scale dropwise condensation model to predict water production, from pure vapor and a humid atmosphere.