Analysis of chemical film monolayers under wind and wave conditions

Drought, along with water wastage has been a serious issue facing the Australian population, in particular communities in regional areas. In response to this, several new chemical film monolayers have been developed by the Cooperative Research Centre for Polymers to reduce the effect of evaporation in both agricultural and public water reserves. The influence of waves and wind on the ability of these particular prototype monolayers to reduce evaporation has not been quantified. The research presented in this manuscript has begun to solve this issue by implementing a testing regime using a wave basin located in an atmospherically controlled enclosure (constant temperature and capable of simulating wind on the water surface). Preliminary results have found that the application of moderate capillary waves generated by surface wind action has a quantifiably smaller detrimental influence on the performance of the prototype monolayers in comparison to widely used octadecanol-based formulations and could provide a better defence against evaporation compared to other chemical films currently available to the public.