ON MODELING THE CHANGE IN WETTABILITY OF A METAL SURFACE DURING LASER TEXTURING OF THE RELIEF

Over the recent years the researchers’ interest in the control of the wettability of metal surfaces with various liquids has increased due to a wide range of applications. In particular, the use of hydrophobic functional surfaces in thermal power plants and systems contributes to an increase in their efficiency and reliability. Despite the huge number of existing methods of hydrophobization of metal surfaces, the world scientific community has proposed and is intensively developing a method based on texturing micro-/nano-scale relief using laser equipment (laser ablation). The paper presents a study carried out to determine the effect of modification of brass surfaces using laser equipment on the geometric parameters of the textured relief and the properties of wettability, based on the results of which a mathematical model for predicting wettability was proposed.