Predicting reflections of thin coatings

The appearance of materials and objects is important in for example household products, furniture, cars. Industries constantly adjust their fabrication parameters in order to create materials displaying the required properties. This is very time consuming and can be optimized with optical models. In literature optical models are to simulate the reflection of surfaces, but these reflections are never linked to their visual perception. In this research we aspire to create a link between the optical models and the visual perception of the surface. Steel was chosen as a case study because of its use in a wide variety of applications where the appearance of the steel is of paramount importance. Two parts are discerned in this paper: first different degrees of roughness were introduced on the steel substrates. Secondly a transparent coating is applied on the rough surfaces. The experimental data were used to predict the reflection of the surface. [All rights reserved Elsevier].