Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Leidenfrost Energy Barriers, James Peck, Anton Hassebrook, Craig Zuhlke, Troy P. Anderson, Dennis R. Alexander, George Gogos, Sidy Ndao

UCARE Research Products

In this work, an “Energy Barrier” was created to control the motion of Leidenfrost droplets. This barrier was created by functionalizing a portion of a mirror-polished stainless steel 304 surface with Femtosecond Laser Surface Processing (FLSP). FLSP results in superhydrophilic, hierarchical, micro- and nanostructures which are highly wetting and thus have an increased Leidenfrost temperature. Water droplets in the film boiling state were deposited, and propelled by gravity towards the Energy Barrier interface. Room temperature droplets were deposited over a range of surface temperatures beginning with the Leidenfrost temperature of mirror-polished stainless steel 304 and culminating at the Leidenfrost temperature …