Hydrophobic expanded polymer mats are used in a wide range of industries for many purposes. Their relatively low cost, availability in a wide range of polymer materials, and consistency of pore size distribution are advantageous for some applications such as the separation of liquid drops from gas streams. When fabricated of a non-wetting material, liquid drops tend to stay on one side of the mat and can move across the mat surface due to drag of the gas flow. The rate of movement of drops on the surface can affect the rate of coalescence, the drop size, the loading of drops on the surface of the mat, and ultimately the effectiveness of the mat to separate the drops from a gas stream. In this work the movements of water drops on the surfaces of expanded polymer mats due to tangential air flow are observed to determine the effects of mat material properties and geometrical characteristics, drop dimensions and air flow conditions. A correlation for a drag coefficient of drop movement on the mat surface is developed. A second correlation for the minimum Reynolds number of the gas to initiate the movement of drop on the surface of the mat is also developed.

疏水性膨胀聚合物垫被广泛用于许多行业。它们相对较低的成本，在多种聚合物材料中的可用性以及孔径分布的一致性对于某些应用（例如从气流中分离液滴）是有利的。当由非润湿材料制成时，由于气流的阻力，液滴倾向于留在垫子的一侧，并且可以在垫子表面上移动。液滴在表面上的移动速度会影响聚结的速度，液滴的大小，垫子表面上液滴的负载，并最终影响垫子将液滴与气流分离的效率。在这项工作中，观察到由于切向气流，水滴在膨胀的聚合物垫表面上的运动，以确定垫材料的性能和几何特性，液滴尺寸和气流条件的影响。建立了在垫表面上的下落运动的阻力系数的相关性。还建立了气体最小雷诺数的第二种相关性，以启动液滴在垫子表面上的运动。