Hierarchical Micro-Nanostructured Surfaces for Isotropic/Anisotropic Liquid Transport

Dual-Axial Tool Servo Diamond Turning of Hierarchical Micro-Nano-Structured Surfaces

This paper reports on a dual-axial tool servo diamond turning method for the one-step fabrication of hierarchical micro-nano-structured surfaces. With respect to the dual-axial servo motion (XZ), the z-axis motion can generate the primary surface with a complex shape, and the x-axis motion is used to synchronously form the secondary structure via controlling the residual tool marks. The toolpath determination algorithm for the developed turning method is described in detail, and the effect of the machining parameters on the basic feature and sizes of the generated secondary structures is investigated through conducting the numerical simulation for both toolpath and surface generation. The simulation result indicates that the additional x-axial motion is effective for the deterministic generation of a variety of secondary structures. Finally, taking advantage of an ultra-precision lathe with a self-developed tri-axial FTS, a hierarchical surface with high accuracy is practically generated.

Predicting Hemiwicking Dynamics on Textured Substrates

The ability to predict liquid transport rates on textured surfaces is key to the design and optimization of devices and processes such as oil recovery, coatings, reaction-separation, high-throughput screening, and thermal management. In this work we develop a fully analytical model to predict the propagation coefficients for liquids hemiwicking through micropillar arrays. This is carried out by balancing the capillary driving force and a viscous resistive force and solving the Navier-Stokes equation for representative channels. The model is validated against a large data set of experimental hemiwicking coefficients harvested from the literature and measured in-house using high-speed imaging. The theoretical predictions show excellent agreement with the measured values and improved accuracy compared to previously proposed models. Furthermore, using lattice Boltzmann (LB) simulations, we demonstrate that the present model is applicable over a broad range of geometries. The scaling of velocity with texture geometry, implicit in our model, is compared against experimental data, where good agreement is observed for most practical systems. The analytical expression presented here offers a tool for developing design guidelines for surface chemistry and microstructure selection for liquid propagation on textured surfaces.