The general objective of this thesis is to conduct experiments on sphere free-falling in liquid that advance our understanding of the drag reduction on solids moving in liquid by means of lubricating gas layers and attached streamlined air cavities. Part I of the thesis investigates the effect of thin air layers, naturally sustained on superhydrophobic surfaces, on the terminal velocity and drag force of metallic spheres free- falling in water. The surface of 20 mm to 60 mm steel or tungsten-carbide spheres is rendered superhydrophobic by a simple coating process that uses a commercially available hydrophobic agent. By comparing the free-fall of unmodified spheres and superhydrophobic spheres, in a 2.5 meters tall water tank, it is demonstrated that even a very thin air layer (~ 1 – 2 μm) that covers the freshly dipped superhydrophobic sphere, can reduce the drag force on the spheres by up to 80 %, at Reynolds numbers 105 to 3×105, owing to an early drag crisis transition. Part II of the thesis investigates the drag reduction by means of the dynamic Leidenfrost vapor-layer sustained on the surface of heated metallic spheres free-falling in a fluorocarbon liquid, FC-72 (perfluorohexane). In these experiments we employed two tall liquid tanks: a 3 meter tall 14 cm wide tank and a 2 meter tall 20 × 20 cm cross-section tank with a heater device. These tanks are significantly larger than the tanks used in prior studies and allow us to track the extended fall trajectories and to compare the drag on room-temperature no-vapor-layer spheres to that of heated Leidenfrost vapor-layer spheres. Analysis of the extended free-fall trajectories and acceleration, based on the sphere dynamic equation of motion, enables the accurate evaluation of the vapor-layer-induced drag reduction, without the need for extrapolation. We demonstrate that the drag on the Leidenfrost sphere in FC-72, can be as low as CD = 0.04 ± 0.01, or an order of magnitude lower than the values for the no-vapor-layer spheres in the subcritical Reynolds number range. This drag reduction extends into the supercritical Reynolds number range. The analysis method developed herein, to describe the sphere trajectories, can be applied in other related studies. Part III of the thesis examines a recently demonstrated phenomenon of the formation of stable-streamlined gas cavity following the impact of a heated Leidenfrost sphere on a liquid surface or a superhydrophobic sphere on water. The sphere encapsulated in a teardrop-shaped gas cavity was found to have near-zero hydrodynamic drag due to the self-adjusting streamlined shape and the free-slip boundary condition on the cavity interface. Here it is shown that such cavities can be formed following the water impact from a sufficient height of non-superhydrophobic spheres with water contact angles between 30° and 120°. In this case the streamlined cavity is attached just above the sphere’s equator, instead of entirely wrapping the sphere. Nevertheless, this sphere with attached cavity has near-zero drag and predetermined free-fall velocity in compliance with the Bernoulli law of potential flow. Last, the effect of surfactant addition to the water solution is investigated. The shape and fall velocity of the sphere with streamlined cavity formation were unaffected by the addition of low-surface-modulus synthetic surfactants, but was destabilised when a solution containing high-surface-modulus surfactants, such as soaps were used.

The velocity and temperature fields of several air cavities have been surveyed. The cavities operated in the transitional boundary layer regime with vertical, opposing, isothermal heated and cooled walls. The cavity height, width, temperature difference and wall insulation were all changed during the study, with the aspect ratio varying from 4 to 10, and RaH varying from 2,263x10 to 4.486x101e. The local velocity and temperature were measured simultaneously using a laser Doppler anemometer and a 25jim chromel-alumel thermocouple. This allowed the turbulence quantity tT to be measured directly, as well as the mean and root mean square of the fluctuations of velocity and temperature. Several other quantities, which have not previously been available, were derived from the measured data, these were the wall shear stress, the mean lateral velocity, u'v', and v'T'. The effect of a decrease of the level of insulation on the vertical walls was to decrease the non-dimensional temperature of the fluid at the vertical centre-line. Different thermal boundary conditions on the horizontal walls resulted in significant differences between the heated and cooled wall, thermal and velocity, boundary layers. A decrease in the cavity width was seen to alter the characteristics of the mean velocity and temperature profiles when the width was less than twice the lateral extent of either boundary layer in a cavity with a larger width. Near wall distributions of u'v' have shown that the viscous sub-layer was approximately 4mm thick. Calculations of power spectral density, together with inspection of time histories, have confirmed that a laminar flow was present at the bottom of the heated wall. P.S.D. calculations showed that the dominant frequencies of transition were multiples of a base frequency and dependent on the local temperature drop between the wall and the "environment". The power relationship between frequency and power spectral density has been shown to depend on the local vertical temperature gradient. Three sub-ranges were identified in the velocity spectra, whereas four were identified in the temperature spectra. The equivalent ranges in the velocity and temperature spectra exhibited different powers on the frequency, with those of the temperature field being larger.

[pt] Nesta dissertação foram discutidos os resultados obtidos com um interferômetro Fabry-Perot intrínseco (FPI) a fibra óptica, para sensoriamento de deformação longitudinal, temperatura e campo magnético. O FPI foi construído através da emenda de uma fibra capilar entre dois pedaços de fibra padrão de telecomunicação, formando uma cavidade de ar retangular. Esta cavidade, quando atua como um sensor de deformação longitudinal, possui uma sensibilidade nove vezes maior que uma típica rede de Bragg (FBG). Porém, quando atua como sensor de temperatura, a sensibilidade é bem menor que a de uma rede de Bragg, tornando-se bastante útil para diversas aplicações. O sensor de campo magnético foi construído através da colagem da cavidade de ar num material magnetostrictivo, para que este convertesse as mudanças causadas em seu comprimento, devido à aplicação do campo magnético, em deformação longitudinal. Este sensor apresentou uma sensibilidade ao campo magnético quatro vezes maior do que quando o mesmo é construído com uma rede de Bragg. / [en] This thesis discusses the results obtained with an intrinsic Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) fiber, for sensing longitudinal strain, temperature and magnetic field. The FPI was constructed by splicing a capillary fiber between two pieces of standard telecommunication fiber, forming a rectangular air cavity. This cavity, when acting as a longitudinal deformation sensor has a sensitivity nine times greater than a typical Bragg grating (FBG). However, when it acts as a temperature sensor, the sensitivity is much smaller than a Bragg grating, making it useful for various applications. The magnetic field sensor was built placing the air cavity on a magnetostrictive material, so that it converted the changes brought in its length due to the application of the magnetic field in longitudinal deformation. The sensor showed a sensitivity to the magnetic field four times higher than when it is built with a Bragg grating.