Nature inspired hexagonal textured patterns using entropy-PROMETHEE-II methods: an experimental study

Nature-inspired texture patterns exhibit intricate, organic designs that mimic the intricacy found in the natural world and are too complex to be generated on a surface. The work presents an experimental investigation and optimization of EDM parameters for the generation of nature-inspired texture pattern i.e., hexagonal texture pattern on a steel surface using the copper electrode. Duty factor (DF), primary current (I_p), and pulse-on time (T_on) are considered as input parameters, and deviation in texture area (DTA), corner radius (CR), and machining time (MT) as output responses of EDM. Experiments are performed based on the Taguchi (L32-OA) and optimization is done by integrated Entropy-PROMETHEE-II method. Here, the entropy method is used for the determination of precise criteria weights while PROMETHEE-II is used for multi-response optimization. Simultaneously, the significance of the EDM parameters is analyzed via. parametric and ANOVA respectively. The result shows that Pulse on time is found most influencing parameter and Exp. No-18 (90% DF, 50 µs T_on, and 2A I_p) is obtained as the optimal setting for EDM. The optimal setting is obtained as; DTA (33,206.5) µm², CR (44.6738 µm), and MT (68.68 s). At last, the surface integrity of the generated texture is examined by microscope & profilometer. The EDM process-generated texture is found very smooth and with nominal DTA.