Faculty Publications
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Item Review of non-reactive and reactive wetting of liquids on surfaces(2007) Kumar, G.; Prabhu, K.N.Wettability is a tendency for a liquid to spread on a solid substrate and is generally measured in terms of the angle (contact angle) between the tangent drawn at the triple point between the three phases (solid, liquid and vapour) and the substrate surface. A liquid spreading on a substrate with no reaction/absorption of the liquid by substrate material is known as non-reactive or inert wetting whereas the wetting process influenced by reaction between the spreading liquid and substrate material is known as reactive wetting. Young's equation gives the equilibrium contact angle in terms of interfacial tensions existing at the three-phase interface. The derivation of Young's equation is made under the assumptions of spreading of non-reactive liquid on an ideal (physically and chemically inert, smooth, homogeneous and rigid) solid, a condition that is rarely met in practical situations. Nevertheless Young's equation is the most fundamental starting point for understanding of the complex field of wetting. Reliable and reproducible measurements of contact angle from the experiments are important in order to analyze the wetting behaviour. Various methods have been developed over the years to evaluate wettability of a solid by a liquid. Among these, sessile drop and wetting balance techniques are versatile, popular and provide reliable data. Wetting is affected by large number of factors including liquid properties, substrate properties and system conditions. The effect of these factors on wettability is discussed. Thermodynamic treatment of wetting in inert systems is simple and based on free energy minimization where as that in reactive systems is quite complex. Surface energetics has to be considered while determining the driving force for spreading. Similar is the case of spreading kinetics. Inert systems follow definite flow pattern and in most cases a single function is sufficient to describe the whole kinetics. Theoretical models successfully describe the spreading in inert systems. However, it is difficult to determine the exact mechanism that controls the kinetics since reactive wetting is affected by a number of factors like interfacial reactions, diffusion of constituents, dissolution of the substrate, etc. The quantification of the effect of these interrelated factors on wettability would be useful to build a predictive model of wetting kinetics for reactive systems. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Item Effect of substrate surface roughness on wetting behaviour of vegetable oils(2009) Prabhu, K.N.; Fernades, P.; Kumar, G.Vegetable oils are mainly used in the heat treating industry due to their environmental friendliness. In the present work the effect of surface roughness on spreading of vegetable oils on stainless steel substrates was investigated. Spreading phenomenon was digitally recorded and analyzed. All of the oils under investigation exhibited power law spreading behaviour of the type: A = ktn, where A, t, k and n represent the drop base contact area, spreading time, constant and exponent, respectively. The coconut and sunflower oils exhibited accelerated kinetics owing to their lower viscosity as compared to palm and mineral oils while peanut oil showed intermediate behaviour. Viscous regime was dominant during spreading of mineral and palm oils as compared to that of coconut oil. All the oils took longer period of time on rough surfaces than on smooth surfaces to relax to the same degree of wetting. Oils spreading on rough surfaces had to overcome the additional barrier due to asperities of the rough surface. Contact angle decreased with increase in roughness supporting the Wenzel's proposition. The decrease was significant for increase in roughness from 0.25 ?m to 0.50 ?m for all oils. However, the effect was negligible with further increase in roughness particularly for high viscosity oils. A spread parameter (?) is proposed to account for the variation of contact angle with surface roughness of the substrate and momentum diffusivity of the spreading liquid. The result suggested that low viscosity liquids exhibit improved wetting characteristics during spreading on rough surfaces. A model is proposed to estimate dynamic contact angles on substrates having varying surface roughness. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Item Determination of spread activation energy and assessment of wetting behavior of solders on metallic substrates(American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 2010) Prabhu, K.N.; Kumar, G.The effects of substrate material, substrate surface roughness, and operating temperature on the wetting behavior of Sn-37Pb, Sn-3.5Ag, and Sn-9Zn eutectic solders on metallic substrates were investigated. Solder spreading kinetics was successfully represented by the exponential power law (EPL): ?=exp (-K ?n). The EPL parameter K has the significance of accelerating the kinetics of relaxation while the parameter n represents the resistance to spreading process (spread resistance parameter). EPL parameters exhibited a decreasing trend with an increase in surface roughness. Estimated activation energies for solder spreading were found to be in between those reported for inert and highly reactive spreading systems. © 2010 American Society of Mechanical Engineers.Item Wetting behavior of solders(2010) Kumar, G.; Prabhu, K.N.Lead bearing solders have been used extensively in the assembly of modern electronic circuits. However, increasing environmental and health concerns about the toxicity of lead has led to the development of lead-free solders. Wetting of solders on surfaces is a complex and important phenomenon that affects the interfacial microstructure and hence the reliability of a solder joint. The solder material reacts with a small amount of the base metal and wets the metal by intermetallic compound (IMC) formation. The degree and rate of wetting are the two important parameters that characterize the wetting phenomenon. Contact angle is a measure of the degree of wetting or wettability of a surface by a liquid. Spreading kinetics in a given system is strongly affected by the experimental conditions. In reactive systems like soldering, wetting and chemical interfacial reactions are interrelated, and hence for successful modeling, it is essential to assess the effect of interfacial reactions on kinetics of wetting. Solder wetting necessarily involves the metallurgical reactions between the filler metal and the base metal. This interaction at the solder/base metal interface results in the formation of IMCs. During soldering an additional driving force besides the imbalance in interfacial energies originates from the interfacial reactions. The formation of IMC has significant influence on contact angle. The presence of IMCs (thin, continuous, and uniform layer) between solders and substrate metals is an essential requirement for good bonding. Optimum thickness of an IMC layer offers better wettability and an excellent solder joint reliability. However, due to their inherent brittle nature and tendency to generate structural defects, a too thick IMC layer at the interface may degrade the joint. In this paper, the factors affecting the wetting behavior of solders and evolution of interfacial microstructure are reviewed and discussed. Copyright © 2010 by ASTM International.Item Wetting behavior of solders(ASTM International, 2011) Kumar, G.; Prabhu, K.N.Lead bearing solders have been used extensively in the assembly of modern electronic circuits. However, increasing environmental and health concerns about the toxicity of lead has led to the development of lead-free solders. Wetting of solders on surfaces is a complex and important phenomenon that affects the interfacial microstructure and hence the reliability of a solder joint. The solder material reacts with a small amount of the base metal and wets the metal by intermetallic compound (IMC) formation. The degree and rate of wetting are the two important parameters that characterize the wetting phenomenon. Contact angle is a measure of the degree of wetting or wettability of a surface by a liquid. Spreading kinetics in a given system is strongly affected by the experimental conditions. In reactive systems like soldering, wetting and chemical interfacial reactions are interrelated, and hence for successful modeling, it is essential to assess the effect of interfacial reactions on kinetics of wetting. Solder wetting necessarily involves the metallurgical reactions between the filler metal and the base metal. This interaction at the solder/base metal interface results in the formation of IMCs. During soldering an additional driving force besides the imbalance in interfacial energies originates from the interfacial reactions. The formation of IMC has significant influence on contact angle. The presence of IMCs (thin, continuous, and uniform layer) between solders and substrate metals is an essential requirement for good bonding. Optimum thickness of an IMC layer offers better wettability and an excellent solder joint reliability. However, due to their inherent brittle nature and tendency to generate structural defects, a too thick IMC layer at the interface may degrade the joint. In this paper, the factors affecting the wetting behavior of solders and evolution of interfacial microstructure are reviewed and discussed. Copyright © 2010 by ASTM International.