A High-Pressure Pulsed Water Jet Cutting System by Means of Water Hammer in a Convergent Pipeline

Abstract

One of the authors has developed a high-pressure fuel injection system using an oil hammer for diesel engines in 1993. In the present study, we applied this novel principle of the fuel injection system to the water-jet cutting system, and a pulsed water jet cutting system by means of water hammer in convergent pipeline caused by strong spool acceleration was developed. The system consisted of a pump having a small size plunger and spool, a convergent pipeline, and automatic injector having a hole-type nozzle with a small orifice. This pump, generating strong compression waves at the convergent pipeline inlet by strong acceleration of spool and plunger, is controlled by the low source oil pressure and electromagnetic valve. The wave propagated in the convergent pipeline is dynamically intensified by water hammering in the pipeline. High pressure is then developed at the nozzle. The injection pressure and injection frequency are fully controllable by the source pressure, and by the valve-opening frequency of the electromagnetic valve (EMPV). A computer simulation demonstrated that an operation and the injection pressure are satisfactory as a water jet cutting system. It is shown that a pressure of 140 MPa is obtained in nozzle inlet by a source pressure of 11.8MPa in experiments. The dimension of the nozzle orifice was determined by visualizing the spray origin using a laser-sheet imaging technique. Stagnation force and its spectrum of water jet on work was measured to evaluate effects of injection period and standoff distance on punching time and area. Practical feasibility of water jet cutting system was demonstrated by cutting/punching tests for soft/no-heating materials or metal plates and by paint removing tests.