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Close-Contact Melting on Textured Hydrophobic Surfaces in Heat Transfer

How geometrical confinement and a trapped gas-liquid meniscus reshape close-contact melting, where a solid melts and glides on the thin film between it and a hot textured surface. The student learns to model the coupled velocity and temperature fields with lubrication theory, express the effect of surface texture as effective slip lengths, and predict whether transverse or longitudinal grooves enhance or suppress the melting rate.

B9 Text

Under consideration for publication in J. Fluid Mech. 1 Close-contact melting on hydrophobic

A fluid-mechanics study of close-contact melting (CCM): the process in which a solid pressed against a hot surface melts and slides on the thin liquid film it generates. The authors analyze CCM on ga…