Employing surface tooling for thermal modulation

Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machines, as one of the digital fabrication technologies, can create various textures as milled surfaces. The geometrical properties of these textures depend on various parameters set by the designer. This paper focuses on CNC cutting tools, tool paths, and cut depth to understand their roles in generating different surface textures on a (12.7 × 12.7)cm2 panel surface. 3D Rhinoceros, and other plugins were used to study the texture created by two distinct CNC tools (ball and vee bits), two tool paths (plunge roughing and parallel), and various tool stepovers. The simulation studies focused on the solar radiation received by the panel surfaces and self-shadow cast by the surface texture. The results showed that each tool, tool path, and tool stepover had different effects on the panel surface solar control. Using vee-type bits increased the amount of radiation by 17% compared to the flat panel and using ball-type bits decreased it by 32%.