Evaporation of a water droplet on composite materials Cu-SiC, Cu/G and alloy AlMg3: Modeling the wettability of a metal-matrix composite with MDS

Composite materials are widely used in technology. The choice of exact composite material depends on its purpose, functional properties, stability of parameters over time, and specific conditions of use. In this work, the wettability of various materials was studied. The materials used were processed in two ways: polishing and laser texturing with and without craters. The surface wettability using molecular dynamics methods was modeled when changing the concentration of the reinforcing component in the composite. The crystalline grain orientation and surface roughness of the Cu-SiC composite after texturing is different from Cu, which is important to consider when modeling the wettability. The sensitivity of the wettability of various materials to the surface temperature (Δ θ 0 /Δ T w ) was studied experimentally. The maximum sensitivity of the contact angle to temperature was found for the superhydrophobic surface. The minimum sensitivity was observed for polished AlMg3 surface. Power-law dependences of the evaporation rate of water droplet on the contact angle were obtained for various materials in the temperature range of 25–90 °С. As the droplet diameter increases, the influence of the wetting diameter on the evaporation rate decreases, while that of convection increases. The data obtained can be useful for the development of composite materials technologies and optimization of their functional properties. • Contact angles composite when changing SiC concentration were modeled. • Crystalline grain orientation influence of the Cu-SiC composite wettability. • Sensitivity of composite wettability to the surface temperature was studied. • Power-law dependences of evaporation rate on the contact angle were obtained.