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Many biological surfaces of animals and plants (e.g., bird feathers, insect wings, plant leaves, etc.) are superhydrophobic with rough surfaces at different length scales. Previous studies have focused on a simple drop-bouncing behavior on biological surfaces with low-speed impacts. However, we observed that an impacting drop at high speeds exhibits more complicated dynamics with unexpected shock-like patterns: Hundreds of shock-like waves are formed on the spreading drop, and the drop is then abruptly fragmented along with multiple nucleating holes. Such drop dynamics result in the rapid retraction of the spreading drop and thereby a more than twofold decrease in contact time. Our results may shed light on potential biological advantages of hypothermia risk reduction for endothermic animals and spore spreading enhancement for fungi via wave-induced drop fragmentation.

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Dynamics of drop impact on soft surfaces has drawn a lot of attention for its applications and is motivated by natural examples like raindrop impact on a leaf. Previous studies have focused on categorizing the bending motion observed, using cantilever beam theory, but the complex dynamic response shown by a leaf involving other degrees of motions like torsion about the petiole, remains yet to be understood. In this study, we demonstrated that the complex response of a superhydrophobic Katsura leaf upon raindrop impact can be decomposed into simple single degreeof-freedom linear modes of bending and torsion, modeled as damped harmonic oscillators. Our theoretical estimates were in good agreement with experimental measurements of the frequency and maximum amplitude of bending and torsional modes. We also illustrated the energy transfer from the raindrop to these modes as a function of the impact location, which may shed light on the design of potential raindrop energy harvesting devices mimicking a leaf's structure. Finally, we concluded with a brief description of an unresolved mode (i.e. flapping) and the limitations of our approach.

A multi-component lattice Boltzmann scheme is used to investigate the dynamics of a wettability driven droplet within a microchannel. The driving force for the motion is created by a stepwise change in the wettability of the channel walls. Moreover, an analytical solution is developed for evaluation of the dynamics of the droplet inside the channel. The effects of various parameters such as the height of the channel, the wetting pattern of the channel walls, the viscosity and the density ratio on the dynamics are studied. Also, the effect of grooves of different sizes on the channel surfaces on the dynamics of the droplet is investigated for both hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces. Finally, the effect of an obstacle in the channel on the motion of the droplet is studied. The numerical results are compared with the analytical solutions and close agreement between the results is found.