Hangjian Ling’s Research Website

Our recent published journal article, entitled “Bubble Pinch-off on Biphilic and Superhydrophobic Surfaces” was featured on the journal’s back cover. Check it out here.

Cover description: The pinch-off of bubbles from diverse surfaces—including superhydrophobic, biphilic, hydrophilic, and nozzle surfaces—follows the same underlying dynamics. In all cases, the time evolution of the neck is governed by liquid inertia, while bubble size and contact line behavior exert negligible influence on the pinch-off process. The neck size follows a universal power-law relations.

The FITs lab welcome new group members, including 3 undergraduate students: Anthony DaSilva, David Jope and Erik H Martin. They all have very exciting research projects to work on. Hope you can enjoy the journey at FITs lab!

In collaboration with Dr. Jinde Zhang from UMass Lowell, Dr. Ling received a new award of $75,000 from MassCEC Catalyst Program. Dr. Ling serves as co-PI on this project entitled: “High-rate Manufacturing of Super-Hydrophobic Surface for Reducing Fuel Cost in Marine Transportation”. Congratulations!

Alexander Asare and Umang Panchal joined FITs lab in 09/2025. Both are enrolled in the MS program in Mechanical Engineering. Welcome!

A new paper entitled: “Effect of Surfactant on Bubble Formation on Superhydrophobic Surface in Quasi-Static Regime” was published in Biomimetics. This work was supported by by National Science Foundation grant number 2041479 and 2339606, the University of Massachusetts OTCV Technology Development Fund, and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Internal Seed Fund.

Our new paper entitled: “Effects of Reynolds number and texture dimensions on plastron stability of superhydrophobic surface with transverse grooves in turbulent flows” was published in Physics of Fluids. This paper was featured as Editor’s Picks and was funded by NSF. Well done, Shabnam and Foram!

James Bonnell and John Ready, two undergraduate students from FITs Lab, presented their undergraduate research at MassURC conference at UMass Amherst.

FITs lab received the 2025 Internal SEED award ($25000) from UMass Dartmouth for the research project: “Understanding Bubble Formation on Complex Solid-Liquid Interface through a Combination of Experimental and Computational Studies”. Dr. Mehdi Raessi is the co-PI.

Check out of our new publication in Biomimetics on the topic of longevity of superhydrophobic surface due to gas diffusion. We found the longevity of superhydrophobic surface can be extended by using a gas-soluble and gas-permeable material such as Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).

Check out of our new publication in Droplet on the topic of bubble formation on superhydrophobic surface. We discussed the effect of gas flow rate on bubble formation and detached bubble size.