Mechanics study and application of micro-engineered smart surface

Abstract

Naturally existing functional surfaces with micro-structure arose competing interests due to their potential application in engineering filed such as wetting control, optical control, micro-fluidic, tissue scaffolds, marine engineering, oil field, etc al. A patterned surface with stimuli responsive properties attracts considerable interest for its importance in advanced engineering, partly due to its reversibility, easy design and control, good compatibility and responsive behaviour to external stimuli. In this work, we have investigated various surface instabilities that enable a convenient strategy of micro-engineered structure impart reversible patterned feature to an elastic surface. We focus on the classic bi-layer system contains a stiff layer on a soft substrate that produces parallel harmonic wrinkles at uniaxial compression and ultimately develop into deep creases and fold. By introducing the microscale planar Bravais lattice holes, we guided these instabilities into various patterns to achieve an anisotropic manipulation of single liquid droplet by initialize localized surface morphologies. The Finite Element Analysis provided the fundamental theory on the surface instabilities evolution and development. The finding demonstrates considerable control over the threshold of a surface elastic instability and bi-axial switching of droplet shape that relevant to many novel applications including wearable electronic devices, bio-medical systems, micro-fluidics and optical devices.

Date of Award	31 Jan 2019
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Northumbria University
Supervisor	Glen McHale (Supervisor), Yifan Li (Supervisor) & Ben B. Xu (Supervisor)