Wettability of laser textured surface: a parametric study based on numerical simulation and experimentation

Purpose Dynamic spreading and wetting on the rough surfaces is complicated, which directly affects the fluxion and phrase transition properties of the fluid. This paper aims to enhance our knowledge of the mechanism of micro-texture lubrication from interface wettability and provide some guidance for the practical manufacturing of the surfaces with special wettability and better lubrication characteristics. Design/methodology/approach The effect of surface topography on the wetting behavior of both smooth and rough hydrophilic surfaces was investigated using a combination of experimental and simulation approaches. Four types of patterns with different topographies were designed and fabricated through laser surface texturing. The samples were measured with a non-contact three-Dimensional (3D) optical profiler and were parameterized based on ISO 25178. Quantitative research on the relevancy between the topography characteristic and wettability was conducted with several 3D topography parameters. Findings Results show that for the surfaces with isotropic textures, topography with a small skewness (Ssk) and a large kurtosis (Sku) exhibits better wettability and spreading behavior. For the surfaces with anisotropic textures (smaller texture aspect ratio, Str), dominant textures (such as long groove, rectangle) play a significant guiding role in promoting spreading. In addition, the moving mechanism of the triple contact line and anisotropic spreading were also studied using a computational fluid dynamics simulation. The simulation results have a good adherence with the experimental results. Originality/value Most of the surface characterization methods at present remain at a level that is related to geometric description, and the topography parameters are limited to 2D roughness parameters. So in present study, the relevancy between wettability and 3D surface topography parameters is explored. The authors believe that the current work provides a new viewpoint to the relevancy between surface topography and wettability.