Abstract
Major studies related to the generation and control of wettability in engineering surfaces are focused on coatings and patterning of surfaces. However, investigations on anisotropic wetting induced by roughness texture after traditional surface generation methodologies such as CNC milling may be useful to optimize the selection of machining conditions such as feed rate of cutting tool. A comprehensive mathematical model is presented in this paper to predict the contact angle established by non-volatile liquid drop on CNC milled surfaces, from the set value of tool feed rate while machining. Proposed model can evaluate the wettability of hydrophilic target materials with non-composite wetting state, incorporating the liquid spreading dynamics, geometrical aspects as well as roughness parameters of solid surface. Considering practical relevance, verification of the model is presented through systematic experimental investigation on wettability of CNC milled aluminium AA6061 surfaces, which establishes a hydrophilic, non-composite wetting state during its interaction with water drops.
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