Effective hydrodynamic boundary conditions for microtextured surfaces

Understanding the influence of topographic heterogeneities on liquid flows has become an important issue with the development of microfluidic systems, and more generally for the manipulation of liquids at the small scale. Most studies of the boundary flow past such surfaces have concerned poorly wetting liquids for which the topography acts to generate superhydrophobic slip. Here we focus on topographically patterned but chemically homogeneous surfaces, and measure a drag force on a sphere approaching a plane decorated with lyophilic microscopic grooves. A significant decrease in the force compared with predicted even for a superhydrophobic surface is observed. To quantify the force we use the effective no-slip boundary condition, which is applied at the imaginary smooth homogeneous isotropic surface located at an intermediate position between the top and bottom of grooves. We relate its location to a surface topology by a simple, but accurate analytical formula. Since grooves represent the most anisotropic surface, our conclusions are valid for any texture, and suggest rules for the rational design of topographically patterned surfaces to generate desired drag. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.87.011002