Bio-inspired surfaces are able to decrease friction with fluids and gases.The most recognizable are shark-skin-like riblet surface structures.Such bio-inspired surfaces can be formed by the laser ablation technique.In this work, bio-inspired riblet surfaces with grooves were formed using picosecond ultraviolet laser ablation on pre-heated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) at various sample temperatures.The ablation of hot PTFE was found to be 30% more efficient than the conventional laser structuring at the room temperature.The friction of structured PTFE surfaces with the flowing air was investigated by using drag a measurement setup.Results show the decrease of friction force by 6% with dimensionless riblet spacing around 14-20.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Žemaitis et al. (2019) studied this question.