Rock breaking performance of the newly proposed unsubmerged cavitating abrasive waterjet

To improve the rock breaking ability, cavitating waterjet and abrasive waterjet are combined by using a coaxial low-speed waterjet generated around the periphery of a high-speed abrasive waterjet, and a new type of waterjet called unsubmerged cavitating abrasive waterjet(UCAWJ) is thus produced. The rock breaking performance of UCAWJ was compared with submerged cavitating abrasive waterjet(SCAWJ)and unsubmerged abrasive waterjet(UAWJ) by impinging sandstone specimens. Moreover, the effects of jet pressure, standoff distance, abrasive flow rate and concentration were studied by evaluating the specific energy consumption, and the area, depth, and mass loss of the eroded specimen. The results show that the artificially generated submerged environment in UCAWJ is able to enhance the rock breaking performance under the same operating parameters. Furthermore, the rock breaking performance of UCAWJ is much better at higher jet pressures and smaller standoff distances when compared with UAWJ. The greatest rock breaking ability of UCAWJ appears at jet pressure of 50 MPa and standoff distance of 32 mm, with the mass loss of sandstone increased by 370.6% and the energy dissipation decreased by 75.8%. In addition, under the experimental conditions the optimal abrasive flow rate and concentration are 76.5 m L/min and 3%, respectively.

A review on the erosion mechanisms in abrasive waterjet micromachining of brittle materials

The fabrication of miniature structures on components with high-integrity surface quality represents one of the cutting edge technologies in the 21st century.The materials used to construct such small structures are often difficult-to-machine.Many other readily available technologies either cannot realise necessary precision or are costly.Abrasive waterjet(AWJ)is a favourable technology for the machining of difficult-to-machine materials.However,this technology is generally aimed at large stock removal.A reduction in the scale of this technology is an attractive avenue for meeting the pressing need of industry in the production of damage-free micro features.This paper reviews some of the work that has been undertaken at UNSW Sydney about the development of such an AWJ technology,focusing on the system design currently employed to generate a micro abrasive jet,the erosion mechanisms associated with processing some typical brittle materials of both single-and two-phased.Processing models based on the findings are also presented.The review concludes on the viability of the technology and the prevailing trend in its development.

Impact characteristics and stagnation formation on a solid surface by a supersonic abrasive waterjet

A computational fluid dynamics(CFD)study of the impact characteristics and stagnation formation on a solid target surface by an abrasive waterjet at supersonic velocities is presented to understand the impact process.A CFD model is developed and verified by experimental water and particle velocities and then used to simulate the jet impact process.The trends of the stagnation formation and its effect on the jet flow with respect to the jetting and impacting parameters are amply discussed.It is found that stagnation formation at the impact site increases with an increase in the impact time,nozzle standoff distance and nozzle diameter,while the initial peak velocity at the nozzle exit has little effect on the size of the stagnation zone.It is shown that stagnation markedly changes the water and particle flow direction,so that the particle impact angle is varied and the jet impact area is enlarged.The jet structure may be classified to have a free jet flow region,a jet deflection region with a stagnation zone and a wall jet region.Furthermore,the stagnation affects significantly the waterjet and particle energy transferred to the target surface.The average particle velocity across the jet is reduced by approximately one third due to the damping effect of the stagnation under the conditions considered in this study.

Improvement of titanium alloy TA19 fatigue life by submerged abrasive waterjet peening:Correlation of its process parameters with surface integrity and fatigue performance

Submerged abrasive waterjet peening(SAWJP)is an effective anti-fatigue manufacturing technology that is widely used to strengthen aeroengine components.This study investigated the correlation of SAWJP process parameters on surface integrity and fatigue life of titanium alloy TA19.SAWJP with different water pressures and standoff distances(SoDs)was conducted on the TA19 specimens.The surface integrity of the specimens before and after SAWJP with different process parameters was experimentally studied,including microstructure,surface roughness,microhardness,and compressive residual stress(CRS).Finally,fatigue tests of the specimens before and after SAWJP treatment with different process parameters were carried out at room temperature.The results highlighted that the fatigue life of the TA19 specimen can be increased by 5.46,5.98,and 6.28 times under relatively optimal process parameters,which is mainly due to the improved surface integrity of the specimen after SAWJP treatment.However,the fatigue life of specimens treated with improper process parameters is decreased by 0.55 to 0.69 times owing to the terrible surface roughness caused by the material erosion.This work verifies that SAWJP can effectively improve the surface integrity and fatigue life of workpieces,and reveals the relationship between process parameters,surface integrity,and fatigue life,which provides support for the promotion of SAWJP in the manufacturing fields.

Smoothing strategy for corner of small curvature radius by abrasive waterjet machining

Abrasive waterjet(AWJ)is widely applied in 2D machining as it offers high machining efficiency and low machining cost.However,machining a 3D surface,especially for a small curvature radius freeform surface(SCRFS),results in over-erosion of the corner,and has been one of the greatest issues of AWJ.To solve this problem,a local smoothing algorithm for SCRFS is developed by the junction of two linear segments at the corner by inserting cubic second-order B-spline to smooth the nozzle path and posture under the setting tolerance error,which is aimed to avoid over-erosion due to the change in dwell time.Analytical solutions of the smooth corner position and orientation of the nozzle path are obtained by evaluating a synchronization algorithm.According to the set tolerance error of the nozzle position and orientation,the interpolation of the smooth path of the corner meets the constraint conditions of the linear feed drive.Path simulation and experimental results show that the proposed method is validated by the experimental results and has been applied to the integral blisk machining of an aero-engine.

Experimental and numerical investigation of the abrasive waterjet machining of aluminum-7075-T6 for aerospace applications

The machining of hard-to-cut materials with a high degree of precision and high surface quality is one of the most critical considerations when fabricating various state-of-the-art engineered components.In this investigation,a comprehensive three-dimensional model was developed and numerically simulated to predict kerf profiles and material removal rates while drilling the aluminum-7075-T6 aerospace alloy.Kerf profile and material removal prediction involved three stages:jet dynamic flow modeling,abrasive particle tracking,and erosion rate pre-diction.Experimental investigations were conducted to validate the developed model.The results indicate that the jet dynamic characteristics and flow of abrasive particles alter the kerf profiles,where the top kerf diameter increases with increasing jet pressure and standoff distance.The kerf depth and hole aspect ratio increase with jet pressure,but decrease with standoff distance and machining time.Crosssectional profiles were characterized by progressive edge rounding and parabolic shapes.Defects can be minimized by utilizing high jet pressure and small standoff distance.The material removal rate increases with increasing jet pressure,abrasive particle size,and exposure time,but decreases with increasing standoff distance.