Novel liquid float polishing technology based on non-Newtonian fluid

A novel flexible liquid float polishing technique was presented through software simulation and experiment. Firstly, the fluent software was employed to analyze the flow field of the liquid float polishing model which had shear thickening effect. The flow field pressure and shear force distribution of the liquid float polishing model were obtained. The simulation results show that the liquid float polishing technology has certain shearing effect on the surface of the workpiece, and the workpiece material can be removed effectively. Then, an experimental platform was established to verify the simulation results. A kind of polishing solution based on non-Newtonian power law fluid was prepared which composed of SiO₂ (particle size 12 nm) served as solvend, polyethylene glycol (molecular weight of 200) served as solvent, and the cerium oxide with a mass fraction of 18% is also added as the abrasive. The surface roughness of K9 glass can be effectively reduced from 23.97 nm to 1.023 nm after 90 min polishing by using the novel flexible liquid float polishing technique. The experimental results show that this technology can be used for the processing of optical components.