| Abstrakt: |
A surface's superhydrophobicity, a salient property, determines its uses in areas including fluid drag reduction, self-cleaning surfaces, wear reduction via lubrication retention, viscosity testing, and the creation of oleophobic coatings, among many others. A surface that is superhydrophobic has a contact angle (CA) of 150° or higher with water. Due to the hierarchical size of the features involved and the poor physical knowledge of the principles by which surfaces acquire superhydrophobicity, it is challenging to produce such surfaces by machining. Still, it is challenging to deterministically machine microscopic features on surfaces to achieve superhydrophobicity. The present study aims for the development of a mathematical model for predicting the CA based on pillar sizes and distance between pillars, which helps to achieve hydrophobic surfaces with varying CAs. The first phase of the work comprises the development of a mathematical model based on the forces responsible for balancing the water droplet on pillars. Further, the second part of the work comprises the experimental investigation by fabrication of arrayed features using the reverse micro EDM process using the geometrical dimensions obtained from simulation results. Furthermore, a comparison was made between the simulation and experimental results to ascertain the accuracy of the model. The developed model predicts the CA with a maximum error value of < 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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