A water strider has a remarkable capability to stand and walk freely on water. Supporting forces of a water strider and a bionic robot have been calculated from the side view of pressed depth of legs to reconstruct the water surface dimples. However, in situ measurements of the multiple leg forces and significantly small leg/water contact dimples have not been realized yet. In this study, a shadow method was proposed to reconstruct the in situ three-dimensional topographies of leg/water contact dimples and their corresponding supporting forces. Results indicated that the supporting forces were affected by the depth, width, and length of the dimple, and that the maximum dimple depth was not proportional to the supporting forces. The shadow method also has advantages in disclosing tiny supporting force of legs in their subtle actions. These results are helpful for understanding the locomotion principles of water-walking insects and the design of biomimetic aquatic devices.
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Three-dimensional topographies of water surface dimples formed by superhydrophobic water strider legs
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17 October 2016
Research Article|
October 17 2016
Three-dimensional topographies of water surface dimples formed by superhydrophobic water strider legs
W. Yin;
W. Yin
State Key Laboratory of Tribology,
Tsinghua University
, Beijing 100084, China
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Y. L. Zheng;
Y. L. Zheng
State Key Laboratory of Tribology,
Tsinghua University
, Beijing 100084, China
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H. Y. Lu;
H. Y. Lu
State Key Laboratory of Tribology,
Tsinghua University
, Beijing 100084, China
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X. J. Zhang
;
X. J. Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Tribology,
Tsinghua University
, Beijing 100084, China
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a)
Electronic mail: tianyu@tsinghua.edu.cn
Appl. Phys. Lett. 109, 163701 (2016)
Article history
Received:
July 03 2016
Accepted:
September 02 2016
Citation
W. Yin, Y. L. Zheng, H. Y. Lu, X. J. Zhang, Y. Tian; Three-dimensional topographies of water surface dimples formed by superhydrophobic water strider legs. Appl. Phys. Lett. 17 October 2016; 109 (16): 163701. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4964788
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