We study experimentally and discuss quantitatively the contact angle hysteresis on striped superhydrophobic surfaces as a function of a solid fraction, φ_S. It is shown that the receding regime is determined by a longitudinal sliding motion of the deformed contact line. Despite an anisotropy of the texture the receding contact angle remains isotropic, i.e., is practically the same in the longitudinal and transverse directions. The cosine of the receding angle grows nonlinearly with φ_S. To interpret this we develop a theoretical model, which shows that the value of the receding angle depends both on weak defects at smooth solid areas and on the strong defects due to the elastic energy of the deformed contact line, which scales as φ_S~2 ln φ_S. The advancing contact angle was found to be anisotropic, except in a dilute regime, and its value is shown to be determined by the rolling motion of the drop. The cosine of the longitudinal advancing angle depends linearly on φ_S, but a satisfactory fit to the data can only be provided if we generalize the Cassie equation to account for weak defects. The cosine of the transverse advancing angle is much smaller and is maximized at φ_S similar, equals 0.5. An explanation of its value can be obtained if we invoke an additional energy due to strong defects in this direction, which is shown to be caused by the adhesion of the drop on solid sectors and is proportional to φ_S~2. Finally, the contact angle hysteresis is found to be quite large and generally anisotropic, but it becomes isotropic when φ_S≤ 0.2.
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