Abstract:
The development of abrasive water jet (AWJ) as a type of high-density energy processing
technology is widely recognized. Because of its heatless and noncontact processing
capabilities, AWJ is used to quickly achieve cutting quality in a variety of materials, including
metal, ceramics, glass, and composites. On the other hand, cutting parameters including pump
pressure, cutting speed, orifice diameter, standoff distance, abrasive flow rate, and work piece
affect surface roughness and dimension errors like round, burr, and taper.
Beyond changing the values of these input parameters, the shape of the mixing chamber plays
a significant role in the quality and performance of abrasive water jet machining system. And
therefore, in this thesis, there is a strong motivation and interest in analyzing and examining
the impact of the mixing chamber's form on surface quality. A parametric mixing chamber is
suggested, and using mathematical modeling and experimentation, the performance is
analyzed and compared to that of a cylindrical mixing chamber. In addition, mathematical
modeling of abrasive water jet machining system is included under this thesis. Here the effect
of input parameters on velocity profile and thus the actual volumetric flow rate and the
penetration depth has been analyzed numerically.
Experimental data was examined and analyzed using Minitab 17.1.0 software. Among this
analysis are the normality test, and mean calculations as well as contour plots for both
cylindrical and parabolic types of mixing chambers. Finally, by using a parabolic mixing
chamber, the top and bottom surface roughness values were decreased from 4.9170µm to
4.7351µm and from 7.8673µm to 7.5754µm respectively. Furthermore, the taper angle was
minimized from 0.8998° to 0.8098°
